Memories Left in Rain
by Aerynx
Summary: Watari mentally sighs. A magnet, he swears. Lu is just a magnet for trouble. Verde was forever exasperated, Viper was offering free things, almost everything was chaotic. He could only hope he'll be around long enough to ease her safely into the world. OC-centric.
1. Listen to your Instincts

_**Note: Italics in dialogue can be read as Japanese, Regular dialogue is Italian. This applies unless stated otherwise.**_

**A/N: Welcome to my story! This whole story is un-beta'd as of right now until further notice.**

**If you find errors, please do notify me of them if possible. I'll fix them as soon as I can!**

**Please enjoy my first attempt at a story ~**

* * *

If there was one word that would describe her whole being in regards to this situation, it would be stubborn. She was so goddamn stubborn.

Her mother had always been kind to her, so kind to her that it was borderline concerning but she never wanted to give up on her.

_The woman stroked her nails gently across the fragile skin of her baby's neck, "Baby, do you love me?" she whispered gently. _

Her mother honestly terrified her, she always felt the need to get _away_ from her but she ignored that little feeling and always clung onto that tiny sparkle of hope that her mother would turn around and love her _properly _and _genuinely_.

_The voice in her head **screamed** but the child smiled brightly and reached out for her mother, "Mama, Mama!" she called happily. Her mother was back!_

She clung onto that sliver of hope like she knew that her mother would never hurt her because she was her mother and she must have felt at least a little bit of love for her.

_"Mama needs you to do something for her, okay?"_

She attached herself to a lie.

_"Okay!"_

Lady Chiyo intimidated her too but her mind didn't seem to dislike her. It always thought that she was genuine even if she acted scary and as such, the girl held a lot of her respect for the old woman.

Despite how she presented herself, she knew that Lady Chiyo was strong. She might've come across as a cheapskate little frail old lady but she was the one that provided her and her mother shelter, _and_ she was the powerful, independent woman she had always dreamed to be.

But their attempts to hide her mother's chosen way of work was absolutely pathetic. Every night the whole building would resonate sounds of pleasure and pain, it was disgusting. If she hadn't overheard them arguing about their methods of hiding, she wouldn't even have had a split second of thought that they even attempted to hide it at all.

Not that she knew what all the signs pointed to or meant at the time. All she knew is that she hated and it disturbed her immensely. She would flinch at every sound and try to muffle them by burying herself in her blankets.

She would never ask Lady Chiyo about the noises though, she would never complain to the old woman either. She would never risk getting on her bad side because, with how guarded and strict she acted, the girl didn't feel like Lady Chiyo would be lenient if anything went against her beliefs. The last thing she wanted was to be punished on top of being forced to stay put for survival.

She was rather fond of the aggressive old woman because she made it her right to pursue and do what she felt like doing which was super admirable in the little girl's opinion. Lady Chiyo was her role model.

However, Lady Chiyo wasn't enough to make her want to stay. She still desperately want to leave.

Sitting in her child-size futon, the girl stared at her hands. They were soft and powerless. Her fingers curled into a fist of frustration.

There was almost nothing she wouldn't give to get stronger.

The girl let out a sharp sigh, an expression too depressing for a girl her age to be showing.

It would have been a simple task to just leave, but to leave _and_ survive was a completely different matter. Right now, she needed a reason to ask Lady Chiyo if she could leave. Preferably gaining one in a non-life-threatening way but at this point, she wasn't picky...

–actually, she was picky about that. She didn't want to die or get anywhere close to it.

At the same time, if she stayed any longer she might die anyway. Something in the back of her mind made her feel that way but the 'whos' and the 'whats' of the equation were still an absolute mystery.

Footsteps sounded from outside the door, getting louder as the person producing them approached. The girl kept her face hidden in her blankets and evened out her breathing to fake sleep.

The door slid open and someone took a step inside. Within the darkness of her closed eyelids, she could see the little sparkle of a presence but she wasn't sure who. Her heart pounded rapidly in her chest, it was getting really difficult to keep her breathing even and present a convincing act.

If she was lucky, it was Lady Chiyo or one of her attendants. The worst case scenario was that it was someone here to kill her like an assassin of some sort.

The latter should have been completely ruled off because of her status in life. She was two, poor and hadn't left the building so to do something that would make someone hate her that much was virtually impossible, but that chill that ran down her spine, despite all the points against it, made her lean towards the killer end of the spectrum. She shivered in her skin.

It didn't matter the reasons why this person wanted to kill her, but she had no intention of dying tonight.

The girl rolled to the further side of the futon, ripped off her sheets, fully prepared to take a run for it. Her breathing was hitched, she stumbled to her feet and-

It was her mother. She had been freaking out over her mother.

She relaxed all her muscles and fell to her knees, her arms slumped to her sides as she stared at the pretty woman with blank eyes. Why was she freaking out so much over her mother returning to her own room? It wasn't the first time and wouldn't be her last.

Her head hurt, she didn't understand all the mixed signals she was getting from her mind. It was so frustrating she couldn't understand why she felt so off, why she was so scared when her mother had been nothing but really nice.

Her mother wouldn't kill her, right...? Then why did her instincts think she was an assassin, why did **she** still think she was a threat?! Her head was making her feel so scared and intimidated by the woman but her heart was positive that she wouldn't kill her own flesh and blood. The idea of a mother doing such a thing was absurd.

Her mother smiled kindly at her**,** "Hello, baby."

_**'Fake.'** _Her mind hissed out.

She internally hissed back at the little presence at the back of her mind but the feeling of dread and despair triggered by the suggestion was established. She felt sick and forcibly swallowed bile back down her throat.

"...Hi Mama." She whispered.

* * *

Contrary to the young girl's beliefs, Lady Chiyo was actually quite a loving person.

She had the heart in her to move from her successful lifestyle and create a place for women to make a living without drowning themselves in the currently over-priced housing market.

She allowed her girls to stay for free and be provided jobs. If they had gotten knocked up, like the girl's mother-in-law, they had the ability to terminate the child without a fee.

Lady Chiyo had never approved of the young woman keeping her pregnancy but she hadn't imposed on her decision either, the decision was hers and hers only and she respected that.

When Chiyo finally met the young girl, when she was a few months old, she instantly saw the potential in the girl. The child's eyes held determination and curiosity, the two qualities that could lead her to greatness.

The old woman was, well... Old, but not blind. As the years flew by she had seen the brief looks of longing the girl sent at the doors and the little flashes of fear and regret that lingered on her face momentarily whenever she took her mother's hand.

It was as if the child knew that her mother didn't like her but chose to cling onto the hope that her mother truly loved her instead of acting upon her intuition. Chiyo didn't know how she felt about it, it was always a bad idea to ignore your gut instincts.

Like it was stated before, Chiyo gave her girls freedom. So, as soon as the girl was born under her roof, the young girl was also presented with the exact same rights as any other woman under her roof. Thus, her decisions were of her own.

Needless to say, there were still several things the old woman disapproved of. Such as the girl's mother refusing to present her daughter a name, thus an identity. It disgusted her how someone could deprive their own flesh and blood something so important.

But everything changed when the tiny little 3-year old stumbled into her office one late Friday evening drenched in _dying will flames_.

The girl looked mortified and was clutching onto her own clothes, tears threatening to rain down at any moment. The girl was trembling and borderline hyperventilating, the only thing running through Lady Chiyo's mind at that moment was 'What the fuck happened?'

The girl remained in the doorway as if that was the extent of her rights, only moving closer when the significantly older woman ushered her in.

The child broke down into sobs when Chiyo opened her arms in a silent offer.

"She...and...bang...flames... and...rocks... I didn't mean to!" the girl cried.

The old woman was desperately trying to piece together what she was trying to say. Bang? Did her mother try and shoot her? Did her mother try to kill her and cause her flames to explode in the monstrous heap it was left in currently?

Chiyo sucked air between her teeth and sighed, the girl's flames were monstrous in size, she was finding it difficult to hold her own away from the unintentional sky attraction she was inflicting on her for comfort.

She clasped her hands on the small shoulders of the girl and held her steady, pushing all thoughts aside for a moment, "Breathe, child. Tell me once more what happened."

The little girl paused, breathed in deeply then exhaled. Little trembles were noticeable in her breaths but it was an achievement in its own that the girl was coherant at all.

"She- Mama came into our room... And-and she felt dangerous _b-but she was Mama_. She was smiling and-and s-she pulled out a black thing and pulled and bang. The _flames_ went boom to protect me and her arms and legs and face and _everything was like rocks!_ I-I really didn't mean to! _I'm sorry, **I'm so sorry...**_ "

* * *

_Beep… beep…beep…click!_

"…Hello?" A gruff aged voice greeted.

Lady Chiyo chuckled, "You sound old, my friend."

"We are old, Chiyo." The man snarked back, "You do not typically call, is there something you need?"

The old woman sighed into the phone, "One of my girls is petrified, Watari."

"Petrified, you say? You wish me to locate the culprit?"

"No" Chiyo stated, her voice cracking slightly in memory of the incident, "The culprit is a two-year-old and I have her within my custody. I have called you up as you mentioned that your next project was on dying will flames, correct?"

"Indeed." The man replied.

"The girl has powerful flames to the extent that she completely petrified her mother in a flare of panic. The girl clearly wishes to leave this place and I will help her achieve such."

The woman shifted her body in her seat.

"And the father?"

"Sawada Iemitsu. The man knows nothing of the girl, I intend to keep it that way unless the girl announces the fact to him herself." The man hummed.

"You wish for me to take on the child then?" He questioned, scepticism hinted in his tone.

"Yes" The old woman confirmed.

The old man breathed out sharply, "I do hope that I do not regret trusting you, Chiyo."

"You won't" She stated unmovingly, "The girl is intelligent, she understands, she has good intuition. She is a curious girl and I do not doubt that she will be a good student."

"The things that I do for you, old friend." The man chuckled lightly. The woman laughed alongside him, "I always repay my debts, nonetheless."

"Always, indeed. What is the girl's name?" He asked.

Lady Chiyo paused.

The old man frowned, "Does she not have one?"

"No" Another crack in voice rose, "The girl had been holding that off, she had hoped her mother would turn around one day and name her."

"Clearly she did not." He stated.

"She did not." Chiyo repeated solemnly.

"I assume the mother set the child's flames off. You spoke of the mother completely petrified, leave any and all evidence of the incident untouched. I want to analyse it myself."

"When will you arrive?" The woman probed.

"First thing tomorrow morning." He established.

Lady Chiyo huffed out a laugh, "As reliable as ever… Bring a name for the girl, won't you?"

A pause.

"Will do, my friend. Good night now."

"Good night, Watari. Be sure not to die before this old woman."

"I should be the one telling you such." The old man chuckled and momentarily cut the line.

Placing the phone down on its stand, the old woman leaned back into her seat.

_'Watari will care for you child. You will have a good life with him.'_

* * *

A knock of the front door echoed through the building. The little two-year-old shuffled herself to a sitting position, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"Lady Chiyo?" She whispered out, voice slightly husky from sleep. Hearing no reply, blurry eyes glanced around the room. "_She's not here…_"

The girl staggered to a stand and stumbled to the door, still half asleep. Sliding the door open, she peeked her head out only for her to bump her forehead against a pair of dark clad shins. "Oof!" she exclaimed as she stumbled back a few steps, plonking down on her bum.

A chuckle vibrated above her, grabbing her attention at the not so familiar voice. An old man, she observed.

"_Who're you_, mister?" She asked curiously, rubbing her forehead trying to soothe the ache.

_'She speaks Japanese'_, the man mentally noted in surprise. _'Hm… interesting.'_

The man kneeled in front of her and held a hand full of bright yellow flames to her forehead. The pain quickly vanished, the girl's eyes widened and she stood up quickly.

"You did the _flame_ thing! Like Lady Chiyo and me!" She proclaimed.

The old man erased his previous mental note and corrected it. '_An odd jumbled mix of Japanese __**and**__ Italian, it seems. Oh dear."_

"Lady Chiyo and I, my dear." He corrected, "My name is Watari, an old classmate of your Lady Chiyo."

The girl let out an "ohh" in understanding. The man stood back up straight. "I was sent here by the bossy mistress of this house to fetch you for breakfast." He stated.

"Lady Chiyo isn't bossy!" She defended as they walked themselves to the dining area.

Watari chuckled. _'Oh, how adorably innocent.'_

"Are you sure?" He challenged.

The girl went silent for a moment, placing her hand on her chin, visibly thinking very hard. "_No…_ okay maybe she's a little bossy" she whispered before covering her mouth with both hands.

The little girl quickly ran in front of the old man, stopping him in his step, her pointer finger sitting in front of her lips. "I didn't say that okay? _You didn't here it from me!_"

Watari raised an eyebrow in amusement and nodded before ushering the girl along.

_'How cute.'_

Opening the door to the dining room, Watari stepped aside and allowed the toddler to run inside ahead of him before stepping in himself and closing the door behind him.

"_Good morning_ Lady Chiyo!" The girl exclaimed running over to her side and sitting next to her.

"A _good morning_ to you as well." Chiyo greeted her with a smile. "I see you have met Watari. _What do you think of him?_"

The man in question sweat dropped in the background. _'I now see where the girl gets her language flaw from. That is not how one teaches a child a language, Chiyo!'_

The girl nodded, "Mn! _He's really cool_, he stopped my forehead from hurting!"

The older woman sent the old man a 'Oho?' look to which he shook his head disapprovingly. "The poor girl was looking for you and bumped into my legs half asleep."

Chiyo barked out a laugh and ruffled the girl's already messy bed hair, "Oh you poor deary."

The girl pouted and mumbled under her breath, "He just has hard shins…".

Watari smirked, "As we all should do, little flower."

Her face flushed in embarrassment and she rushed to cover her face with her short arms. "_So cruel!_" She whined.

"Luculia." The old woman stated. The newly dubbed girl stared at her in bewilderment, a smart "eh?" reply exited her mouth.

"Your name, young one. That's your new name… Do you like it?"

Luculia was bouncing in her seat, her eyes were shimmering in glee. "Like it? _I love it!_" She exclaimed and dove to hug the old woman, mumbling a joyful "thank you" into her chest.

Watari smiled happily at the pair and Chiyo sent him a grateful nod, the girl oblivious of their actions.

"When did Mr. Watari arrive, Lady Chiyo?" Luculia asked as she was pulled into Lady Chiyo's lap. "Not long before you met him, my sweet. I was barely finishing preparing our breakfast when he knocked on the front door. I sent him straight to fetch you as he arrived."

"Isn't that rude, Lady Chiyo?" The woman in question raised an eyebrow at the toddler. "_Typically, yes,_ you should not be sending your guests to do your chores however Watari is a _good old friend of mine_ and had wanted to meet you anyway, _so it was alright_."

"Actually- " The man cut in smoothly, "Even if they are your close friends you should still refrain from making them do your chores. They can meet whomever they wish at the table or at a later time." The toddler nodded in understanding and the old woman sent him a half-hearted glare and he smiled back.

"_Anyway,_" Chiyo continued, "You wanted to leave this place, _did you not_?"

Luculia nodded, "_I did…_" she whispered, lowering her head ashamed.

The old woman's hand landed on top of her head. "Wanting to go on adventures or wishing for freedom is nothing to be ashamed of. _Don't worry so much about it, okay_?"

Another nod.

"As I was saying, Watari will be taking care of you from now on."

Shock was written all over Luculia's face. "EH?!" Her attention flicked to the old man, looking for confirmation which he gave with a friendly smile.

"_It's okay?_" She asked the old pair. They both nodded.

"Watari plans on moving onto a project regarding _flames_. Since you have unlocked _your own flames_, I believe it would be benefitting for you as well as him." Lady Chiyo explained picking the girl up and placing her back on her seat. "_Now, finish your food_ then go and pack your things, you can take the bag that I left in your room_. I need to show Watari-kun here something before you go_."

"Yes ma'am!" Luculia mock saluted her and dug right into her food.

Two pairs of eyes watched her fondly. '_It really was hard not to get attached to the little girl.'_

"After you pack, meet me at the front door. _Got it?_" Chiyo said as the girl wiped her mouth and hobbled to the door.

"_Got it!_"

With the youngest of the three no longer in attendance, Lady Chiyo made her way to the mother's bedroom with Watari not far behind her.

"Your mixing of Italian and Japanese with the girl will prove detrimental to her in the near future when she leaves the building." The old woman hummed before waving him off with a carefree smile, "She'll be fine, she always understands no matter what parts I intertwine together. She's pretty set in my opinion."

"The girl speaks in a mix of both the languages, not only understands it. She will confuse any natives of either country." Watari notified the old woman.

Chiyo barked a laugh, "Well, good luck to you then, my good friend."

The old man sighed in resignation. _'Typical.'_

"In here." She announced, sliding the door open wide and revealing the contents of the room that was on display due to the sunlight.

Watari strolled directly past Chiyo and straight to the statue of the young woman. Analysing the stone, Watari hummed in contemplation. "What colour were the little flower's flame?"

"Orange" Chiyo replied, thinking back. "Orange with flickers of indigo."

"A sky with a minor mist then, the properties of sky flames that I have read is harmonization. There are records of the flames having petrification abilities." He informed her.

"Is the woman dead?" She queried.

He let out a breath, "Essentially, yes. If she is alive, we do not yet know how to revert her to her original state. By the time we figure that out, she would be long gone and we would be reverting her back into a corpse."

Lady Chiyo frowned before spinning on her heel and walking out the door. "Destroy it." She commanded her voice fading with distance, "I will send people to sweep up the dust that remains."

Choosing not to reply to his old classmate, Watari observed the statue. _'That poor child, subject to attempted murder by her mother.'_ A furious face, a glare burning metaphorical holes into the corner of the room that Watari assumed the child had gone to for any form of shelter. The statue held a gun that was also turned to stone, the gun aimed to shoot a bullet through the toddler's brain given the height of the child. His eyes glanced at the three piles of stone dust laying in neat piles about half a meter from the corner.

He hummed for a moment and placed a hand on the petrified woman's shoulder the next. The hand burst into flames, the stone burst into dust particles due to vibrations, all traces of the statue's form were gone.

Without turning back, the old man shook his shoes and swatted his suit of any dust before stalking down the hallway to the front door where he assumed the newly named sky would be awaiting him.

Dressed in a cute overall, the young sky waved him over, jumping in excitement next to her little drawstring bag. "_Over here_!" she exclaimed.

The chuckling, very amused old man walked over to and crouched in front of her. "Is that all you're bringing, little flower?"

"_Yeah!_" She responded, "I have my _yukata_, my notebook and my pen. That's all I really own I think."

Watari frowned, "Hmm… I think we will need to go clothes shopping if that is the case."

Noticing that Luculia had already put her little slipper on, he slid his shoes on for himself and turning towards Chiyo whom was prepared to send them off.

The old woman had crouched in front of the two-year-old, "Does this _little old lady_ get a hug before you go?" she asked, the corner of her mouth twitching up into a small smile.

The little girl jumped to wrap her arms around the older lady's neck, "_Thank you for everything_, Lady Chiyo" The toddler whispered, "I love you, Lady Chiyo"

Lightly petting the girl on the head, she pulled back from the hug and pinched the girl's nose playfully. "I love you too, Luculia. Be sure to stay in contact and visit me sometime in the future okay?"

"Okay!" Luculia replied with a smile, there were hints of sadness in her eyes but it momentarily disappeared under the toddler's bright smile.

Nodding a goodbye and thank you to Watari, the old woman stood up as the front door slid open.

The aged man tied the little sky's drawstring bag to the handle of his suitcase and picked it up. He tilted his head and nodded at his friend in goodbye. "Wave your Lady Chiyo goodbye, little flower." He commanded lightly.

Taking a step out of the door, the toddler poked her head back into the building, sticking her hand inside and waving. "_Bye_ Lady Chiyo! Don't be bossy to the next old friend that comes by, _okay?_"

Sending the girl a look of fond exasperation, the old woman smiled. "Will do, my dear. _Stay safe now_."

Saluting her one last time for the next several years to come, the little sky sent her a blinding smile. "Yes, ma'am!"


	2. Home Sweet Home

Watari scooped the little two-year-old up onto his right shoulder, provoking a little squeal of surprise. "Wo-oaah!"

"I can walk, _you know_" The toddler commented as she poked his cheek, keeping her other arm around his head to steady herself.

The old man continued his stroll down towards the end, looking at the little flower from the corner of his eye. "Yes, little flower. However, I do not wish for you to get lost, kidnapped or trampled by the crowds especially in this particular district."

She let out an adorable "ohhh" in understanding. "_Are we- I mean you,_ walking the whole way there?"

"No." He responded. "As soon as we get to the end of the street, I will be calling a taxi for us both back to Capo."

"Capo?" Luculia repeated with a questioning tone.

"It's a popular vacation area near the beach, lots of people visit especially in weather like we are currently having. Despite your Lady Chiyo having such a Japanese-type home, we are actually in Sicily, Italy." Watari explained.

The toddler's eyes lit up at the mention of the beach and as she opened her mouth to speak, Watari slid in smoothly cutting her off. "We are not living in a beach house." He corrected, "This place is where I base myself for work and typical duties. The buildings will look very old, different from this area but nonetheless different."

Luculia pouted, "Aww…"

"Ah, this is the end of the red-light district," Watari announced and proceeded to pull out what looked to Luculia like some sort of flip phone. "Be quiet for a moment. I will call us a ride, alright little flower?"

She gave him her signature salute. "Yes, sir!"

As Watari made his call in the background, the little toddler chose to use the time to look around. Not really wanting to move from Watari's unsurprisingly comfortable shoulder, she could only observe.

Luculia was kind of surprised. She thought she was in Japan because of the Japanese way Lady Chiyo had designed the building that she lived in. There were a lot of people walking around the area wearing near to nothing, but it was warm, she reasoned, it was probably just more comfortable and cooling to dress that way for them.

Sometimes people who walked passed her would smile and wave at the girl silently, seeing as Watari was on the phone. The girl happily waved back with a smile.

One of these seemingly kind people walked up to the girl and attempted to get a high five from the toddler, reaching her hand out to humour the man, she froze.

_Stop. It's dangerous._ The voice spoke.

A rough yet comforting hand pulled her hand back to her body. "Move on, sir." Watari commanded the man, "It would do you well to not attempt to tranquillize children let alone toddlers."

Several of the people around that had witnessed the event sent him disgusted looks, some even flinching and walking away. The man growled and Luculia's hold on Watari's hair tightened.

_Dangerous… dangerous… it's still dangerous…. wATCH OUT!_

A pair of hands swiped at her position, a scream of horror followed by a few tears escaped the toddler, several wisps of orange flames danced around her body as if trying to protect her.

Swiftly, Watari threw his shoulders backwards, sending the child flying towards the car-filled road. Bystanders' screams were lost in the screeching of a set of car tyres. The door of the vehicle swung open at light speed and the toddler landed safely in the arms of another. "Oof, kid I think you need to lay off the candies."

_Warm, it's okay. It's safe now._

Breathing heavily and with tears still bubbling in the corners of her eyes, Luculia gazed at the newcomer with wide eyes. A set of brown eyes stared back down at her, a half grin displayed on the young man's face. "You're okay kiddo. Watari's gonna beat the bad guy okay?"

A small nod was given in reply shortly before the girl rubbing her eyes roughly with her sleeves, trying to rid herself of the tears.

Her arms dropped rapidly when a pained grunt was heard from where Watari was. "W-Watari?" she stumbled out.

The said man appeared in front of the toddler, dusting off his suit. "I apologise for throwing you so suddenly, little flower."

The toddler held her arms open at him wanting to be held, "Watari _is okay?_"

The young man sent a questioning look to the toddler's new caretaker, '_Japanese?' _He questioned through his eyes.

_'A work in progress.'_ Watari's eyes sent back.

Scooping her out of the brown-eyed young adult's arms, the old man held her against his chest. "_Are you okay."_ The old man corrected, "But yes, I am quite alright, my dear." He said smiling at the worried child, receiving a mirrored response.

"Good." A familiar Chiyo-like tone responded.

Chuckling, the old man turned to the younger man present and nodded in thanks. "I appreciate the quick response, Shamal."

Shamal grinned in response, "I, of course, never leave a lady waiting."

He opened the door, gesturing the pair to hop into the back seat and performing a faux fancy bow to the little sky, "Your carriage has arrived, young lady."

She giggled in delight and grinned at the old man whom was holding her, "_I like him!_ Can we keep him?"

Watari snorted softly, "I'm afraid that would not be possible, little flower. Shamal is a freelance man for hire, you see."

The brunette man sweatdropped, "I'm not a pet, y'know."

"_That's a great idea!_" Luculia exclaimed, Shamal and Watari sent her a look in question. "You said he's a freelance man for hire, right? We can just hire him as _my puppy!_"

The old man openly laughed at the younger man's misfortune, the puppy in question producing depression lines.

"As amusing as this is, little flower, we must be on our way. Shamal is here to deliver us home and no more, perhaps you will see him again in the future alright?"

A puff of chubby baby fat-filled cheeks was given in reply. "_Fiiiine._"

* * *

"And we have arrived! Kind of…" A boisterous voice announced, turning off the gas and hopping out of the car, the pair in the back seat following shortly after.

"This will be just fine, thank you for your time, Shamal."

"No problemo~ Feel free to call me up if you need anything, you've done plenty for me in the past. You too kiddo, if you need anything just hit up good ol' Shamal. Especially if you grow up as pretty as I think you'll be. If all goes well, you'll be smoking ho-"

SMACK! "Ack!"

Shamal landed on his back, laying on the ground, twitching.

"**Thank you now, Shamal**"

A little whisper arose from the background, "I think you broke him, Watari."

"Nonsense." A hand lightly coated in Sun flames hovered over the semi-unconscious young man. "He'll be just fine, he's quite used to it."

"_Used to it?_ Shouldn't he have like brain damage or something then?"

An amused chuckle rang through the air, "Oh no, he has his handy mosquitoes that heal everything with him. No brain damage will be induced."

"Oh… _okay_"

The toddler petted him on the head after Watari had finished. Well, it was more of a slap but still a pat all the same.

"Ack! That's not even how it works!" He protested, sitting up and rubbing his abused forehead.

The old man scooped the little sky off the floor and back onto his shoulder as he picked up their bags.

Sending Shamal a bemused look, he tilted his hat in the man's direction, "Good day, Shamal."

Luculia grabbed Watari's hat off his head and placed the clearly too big hat on her own head, tilting it to mimic the old man. "_Yes_, good day good sir." She spoke in a terrible butchered British accent.

Shamal let out a loud laugh and stood up to wave to the pair. He tilted his imaginary hat, "Good day, good sir, little madam."

"Ciao Ciao, _Shamal-san!_"

"Ciao, Bella."

* * *

**Mariana, The Funny Pharmacy Old Lady.**

"Woaah!" A wide smile grew on the toddler's face, her eyes glittering. "This place is so _pretty_!"

Luculia was giggling happily, pointing out things left and right that she found interest as they strolled down the sunny streets of San Vito Lo Capo.

"Oh! A pharmacy!" A single digit pointed towards the small green plus displaying the text "Farmacia".

"We are almost there, little flower. We have a grocer about a block away from us as well. Remember the location of the pharmacy will do you well. The little old lady that owns the place is quite the lover of children, if you ever get sick, she will be happy to help."

"Ohh… Okay! Should we visit her to tell her _you're home_?"

Watari stopped walking and hummed in contemplation, "Perhaps you're right, little flower, that would be a good idea."

The old man turned on his heel and walked back towards the pharmacy, a wave of cool, air-conditioned air flushed over the pair.

"Ahh _that felt good_…" Luculia sighed in joy.

"Air conditioning is truly a wonderful invention isn't it?" An unfamiliar voice spoke.

Basking in the cool air, the toddler sat on Watari's shoulder in a daze, subconsciously replying to the voice sounding slightly tipsy, "Yeah…- Wait! _Who're you?_"

A finger poked her side making her squeal and jump in place.

"Do not be rude, little flower." He reprimanded.

Luculia pouted at the old man and turned to face the new face… an old woman whom kind of looks like she could be on her death bed anytime soon.

"Ahh, yes this old lady should be approaching her death bed quite soon. You are quite correct, young one."

The toddler's face flushed and she looked at the lady in bafflement, "Y-you read my mind!"

"I read your face." She corrected.

Bowing her head in apology, "A-ah,_ Hi! My name is Luculia, it's nice to meet you!_" A confused look bloomed on the old Italian woman's face, unable to determine what the girl had said due to the sheer lack of Italian in her dialogue.

Another jab in her side. "Hey, but I did it right!"

"That was Japanese, little flower." The toddler blinked in confusion. "Japanese? What's Japanese?"

"_Japanese_ is Japanese" He clarified.

"Ohh… Sorry."

The old man sighed, Chiyo was a hopeless parent indeed.

"Re-introduce yourself to Mrs. Mariana, in Italian preferably."

Luculia raised a hand to her chin in a thinking position. "Hmm… hello my name is Luculia, how are you?" she spoke in slow Italian, in a questioning tone.

Watari nodded in satisfaction, "Excellent." He praised triggering a joyful smile out of the girl as she rocked side to side.

Sparkles and flowers appeared to glitter around her out of nowhere, but the two elders present smiled but decided not to comment the amusing addition of special effects.

The elderly woman laughed lightly, "I quite like you, little missy. This old woman gets lonely sometimes, do come visit every now and again, wouldn't you? Watari doesn't come by nearly as often as he used to."

The old man shook his head in amusement and the girl gave the woman a salute and a bright smile.

"Will do, Mrs. Mariana!"

"Oh deary, please just call me Mariana, the Mrs makes me feel old."

"Oho? But you are quite old."

"Shut up, Watari."

* * *

**Stefano, The Curly Beach Man.**

Now back outside, walking in the boiling hot sun of summer, Luculia and Watari proceed their adventure to eventually return to their home.

"Are we going home now?"

"Not quite, little flower. We are going to greet the grocer owner next, then we'll go home."

"Oh okay!"

A long pause. Luculia had started playing with Watari's grey hair in slight boredom of having walked a few seconds without anything interesting.

"…"

"Hey, Watari? How do you differentiate _Japanese_ and Italian?" She spoke up.

"Japanese," He first corrected before humming, thinking of how to respond. "They are two completely different languages, little flower. I am Italian and thus grew up speaking Italian however I attended my secondary and tertiary schooling in Japan thus eventually adapted to the language there." He explained, "I learnt the languages separately as your Lady Chiyo should have taught you."

The toddler frowned, "Is it too late to fix it?"

Watari chuckled in good nature, "Good heavens, no. In fact, even if it was known to be "Impossible" I would endeavour to prove that theory wrong. It is definitely possible to help you differentiate the two languages."

Her mood noticeably brightened, "Really? _Thank you, Watari!_"

"The second part of that was in Japanese, little flower."

"Oh… uhh… Thank you?"

"You're welcome, little flower."

A few moments later, a loud and excited exclamation erupted from the toddler. "The _ocean!_ Watari, I can see the _ocean!_"

"The ocean." Watari corrected.

"Yeah! The ocean and people!" She said with an excited giggle. "Can we go play sometime?"

"Not today, but we will one day. You do need to learn how to swim."

The toddler punched the air, "Yay! The ocean!" The happiness radiated off the child, causing Watari to chuckle at her excitement.

"Adorable kid you've got there, Watari." A jolly voice spoke as the pair approached the corner of the street.

"Ah, good afternoon Stefano!" The old man greeted the colourfully dressed middle-aged man, walking up to him and his stand full of beach wear and gear. "You're looking as dashing as always."

The Hawaiian shirt-clad man laughed loudly whilst taking his cap off, brushing his hair back and flipping the cap back onto his dark curly brown hair. "And you, my friend, are as suave as I remember!"

_'As he remembers? As in a long time ago?'_

Luculia blinked in realisation and turned to poke the old man that was supporting her weight, "Have you not been here for a while, Watari? I thought you _lived here_."

"Watari comes 'round about yearly, puffy cheeks. He used to live here when he was a younger lad, you see." The man was as cheeky as ever, Watari rolled his eyes.

The little sky's cheeks gradually began to show signs of pink, "P-puffy cheeks?!" She raised her hands to her cheeks, feeling slightly self-conscious.

"It's adorable, sweet cheeks! Don't be embarrassed!" Stefano let out a belly-full laugh in good nature before quickly reverting to a serious face. "To be honest…" He started before leaning closer to the toddler, half cupping a hand to his face and whispering, "I would actually kill to have your cheeks, sweet cheeks."

Visibly not understanding the joke, Luculia's face paled several shades and she climbed over to Watari's other shoulder to hide behind the old man's head.

The curly haired man grinned and wiggled his eye brows while Watari huffed an amused laugh, distinctly ignoring the butt joke implied by the statement, "He doesn't mean that literally, little flower." He explained. "He means that he would love to have smooth cheeks like yours. Too bad for him though, it's much too late for him."

"How cruel, Watari!" The flowery man proclaimed dramatically.

Popping her head over Watari's, the toddler giggled at his misfortune.

After noticing the large collection of items hanging next to the man, Luculia tilted her head slightly, her arms wrapped securely around Watari's head to prevent herself from falling.

She blinked, "Are you selling this stuff, _Stephano-san?_"

The man sent Watari a questioning look due to the "-san" bit but the old man waved him off.

Smiling at the little girl, the curly-haired man replied. "That's right, puffy cheeks! I sell clothes, towels, hats and even buckets for the kiddies to build sandcastles with! If you ever need anything for a trip to the beach, I'm your man!"

"Ooooh!" Luculia's eyes shimmered in excitement. Sandcastles? Towels? **Ocean?**

The sales man giggled to himself and Watari rolled his eyes, "Maybe next time, little flower. We still have to visit the grocer then go home remember?"

Her eyes widened slightly in realisation. Oh right! They were going to go to her new home soon!

She petted the old man's head lightly to grab his attention then extended her pointer finger forward towards the beach. "_Let's go_, Watari!" she ushered.

Watari chuckled. "Let's go." He corrected and reached up to redirect her arm to point towards the grocery store, "The grocer is over there, little flower."

"Oh."

Continuing their journey to the grocery store, the old man sent Stefano a slight wave in good bye, Luculia waving animatedly to him as they faded from his view.

"Ciao Ciao, Curly!"

"I like that one, Puffy cheeks! Ciao, now!"

* * *

**Mario, The Happy and Funny but Intimidating grocery dude + his wife, Luca, the really nice pretty lady with a scary smile.**

"Hmm…" A gruff, deep voice hummed staring directly into the toddler's eyes from the door way when the old man stopped under the shade, in front of a large outdoor display of fruits and vegetables.

"Hmm…" The toddler hummed in reply staring right back at the unfamiliar man.

"Hmmmmmm…."

_'Is that a challenge I sense?' _Luculia thought in glee. _'Ohohohoho, challenge accepted.'_

"Hmmmmmmmmm…"

"HMMMMMMMMMM…"

"HMMMMMMMMMMMMM…"

A really pretty blonde lady popped her head out of the building and smiled at the large, muscly, tanned, pink apron-clad man blocking the entryway.

The smile was beautiful but it leaked gallons of killer intent to which her victi- I mean husband was currently suffering under.

Shivers visibly ran up the large man's spine, triggering a chain reaction and a shiver from Luculia. Watari tilted his head slightly giving her a questioning look which she waved off, sweat dropping.

"Mario, dear." The blonde woman began, "Please hush and move from the doorway, you're scaring off and blocking the customers."

Mario gulped, "Yes, dear."

The toddler burst out laughing at his 360 change in demeanour.

This attracted her the attention of the three adults currently in the vicinity, the pretty lady sent the little sky a sly smirk. "Welcome back to Jolly Market, Watari and little principessa."

Watari nodded to the woman politely in greeting whilst Luculia waved to her. "_Hello!_ I'm Luculia, it's nice to meet you, Muscles and Bella zia!"

The couple smiled at the girl's innocence, "It's nice to meet you too, principessa. I'm Mario and this is my lovely wife, Luca. Muscles will do though, it's rather flattering." The muscly man replied with a wide grin.

"Japanese?" The blonde questioned lightly, causing the toddler to pout and look at Watari in question, _'I'm pretty sure I did it right… Didn't I?'_ her eyes spoke. The old man shook his head in response.

"You still said _Hello_ instead of Hello, little flower." He mended.

"Oops." She sheepishly said.

The grocery lady giggled, "You're learning Italian, princepessa? Or was it Japanese?"

Luculia puffed out her cheeks and shook her head side to side, "Lady Chiyo, taught me both…" she mumbled.

"Do not mumble, little flower. People cannot understand you if you do. Speak clearly and at a reasonable volume."

Taking in a breath, she tried again, "Lady Chiyo taught me both." She explained, "Just… shekindataughtthematthesametimeandIcan'ttellthedifferencebetweenthetwolanguages."

The woman blinked patiently and Watari sighed.

"Her previous caretaker, an old classmate of mine, spoke to her in an Italian Japanese combination in order to get her accustomed to both languages. That only resulted in the little flower finding it difficult to differentiate the two languages."

"Oh, you poor baby," The pretty lady sympathised. Luculia sighed, "I know right?" she said dramatically, wiping a fake tear.

Watari jabbed her side causing her to slip her grip on his hair and fall backwards. Swiftly, the old man scooped her out of the air and placed her on her feet in front of his form.

"We spoke to Stefano for about 5 minutes, little flower. I know children are easily influenced but you take that to a whole new level."

The toddler pouted up at the old man, "_I'm not a kid!_" she protested.

"Ah! That's meant to be 'I'm not a kid.', little flower."

Puffing her cheeks, she grumbled, "I'm not a kid!"

Watari chuckled, very amused, "Evidence says otherwise."

Luculia crossed her arms and blew a raspberry at him. Triggering an amused raise of an eyebrow.

"The evidence is growing, little flower."

Her face flushed and she pulled her arms over her face to try and hide the blush.

"So cruel, Watari!" She whined a very familiar curly phrase.

"The evidence isn't stopping, little flower." Her face could not get any redder.

* * *

Hung over the old man's left shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the toddler huffed before taking a sip of her Capri Sun that the couple had so gracefully given her out of pity.

"You embarrassed me so much!" She whined, waving goodbye at the slowly disappearing form of Stephano as Watari walked further and further away.

Watari chuckled, "I will only be able to do that for so long, if I wait too long, you'll be all grown up." The girl puffed her cheeks and sent him a look that screamed, _'Really?'_

The old man could feel her gaze on the back of his head. "Yes, really." He replied, probing a deadpan look from the toddler. "A wise man once said, 'Great opportunities don't come every day - recognize and seize them with every chance you get[NG2] .' And that, little flower, was an excellent opportunity that I chose to take."

"Excellent opportunity, _my ass_." She rebuked grumpily.

"Language, little flower." He chastised, his tone speaking clearly of his still lingering amusement.

The little sky pushed herself up with one hand and turned to Watari with a cheeky grin on her face, opening her mouth to ask and- "And no, I will not be telling you how to say that in Italian."

"Boo." She moaned in defeat and slumped herself back comfortably over his shoulder.

She was rightfully a potato sack, she resigned herself to believe.

Watari turned the first corner and proceeded to walk to the middle of the street. The sun was still shining brightly albeit lower than earlier due to the approaching evening.

"This is it, little flower." He announced to the displeased child that lay over his shoulder, angrily sipping on her beloved Capri Sun.

The girl held her drink out to the old man, whom willingly took it out of her hands as she shuffled herself into a more sight-friendly position. Basically straddling his shoulder, she leaned on the side of his head for support and held a hand out for her drink. He obliged.

"The hotel?" The now quite tired girl asked, scanning the area with her eyes.

"That would be a negative, little flower. It's this way." He informed, walking towards the gated off alleyway between the two hotel buildings.

Luculia wrapped an arm around the back of his neck, the other holding her drink tightly but not enough to spill it.

"This is kinda dodgy, Watari." She whispered warily.

"Do not worry," he reassured the toddler, "It's not dangerous… at least not when you are with me."

"_That's not ominous at all._" She complained.

Watari opened his mouth to reprimand the girl's Japanese when she held up a hand to stop him. The man raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"That one was intentional." She stated.

Watari chuckled, "You're getting bold, little flower."

"_Shut up."_ She whispered, cheeks flushed pink.

Watari placed his hand on a scanning pad, the gate automatically opened moments later allowing them to proceed down the growingly dark alleyway.

"At the rate that your language is going, I may need to ban you from visiting Mrs. Mariana." He commented.

Horror spilt all over the toddler's face as she panicked thinking about never seeing the old woman whom was basically her first friend in her new home. "I-I'll be better, I promise!"

"Empty words are no good, little flower." He scolded, "I'm looking for results."

"Hey! I promised!" She protested as Watari walked up to the small pin pad positioned on the right side of the pair of steel doors sitting innocently at the very end of the alleyway. He punched in the long 12-digit pin code at speeds she couldn't comprehend.

The door opened moments later revealing an elevator. Watari stepped inside and scanned his card and the doors closed behind him. The elevator slowly began to descend.

"Yes, you did." The old man continued with a light voice and a heavy gaze, "and I expect you to keep to your word, alright?"

Gulping slightly under his gaze, the girl saluted sharply, "Y-Yes sir!"

The elevator doors opened again, sending Luculia into a state of awe and excitement as she observed her surroundings.

The mood lightened significantly as Watari chuckled at the toddler's excitement.

"Welcome home, little flower." He lifted the girl off his shoulder on onto her own two feet.

With a slight stutter, the little sky breathed in deep, "_I-I'm home!_"


	3. The Not-so Unreasonable Want for Family

Her new home was massive, like massive massive. According to Watari, he had long ago purchased the land that both of the next-door hotels now stood today, he said that the hotel owners had actually negotiated a slightly cheaper lease on the land for their businesses as long as Watari could dig out and build whatever he wanted underground. Of course, there were safety precautions and such done on the materials and structural design, this was to ensure the hotel floors wouldn't suddenly fall through the roof of the underground home. It was perfectly safe, after all, Watari designed the whole thing himself.

_'Wait a minute…'_

"Hey, Watari?" Luculia asked over the kitchen counter as the old man moved about, cooking breakfast.

The man in question turned his head slightly to glance and the toddler before continuing to focus on the pan in his hands. "Hmm...? What is it, little flower?"

"Are you like… super-duper smart or something?" Watari flipped the pancake into the air, landing perfectly cooked onto the two pancakes already sitting on the plate placed directly on his right.

"I'd like to think I am rather smart," He started with a smile, sliding the plate full of 3 pancakes in front of the toddler. "However, smarts are quite relative."

Reaching over to grab the bottle full of maple syrup, she drizzled a hefty amount on to her set of pancakes. "So, like, in comparison to… Lady Chiyo?" She questioned innocently.

Watari sent her a pointed look, an amused pointed look actually.

"Your Lady Chiyo is intelligent." He replied "Perhaps not the smartest in her decisions but intelligent. Her smarts lie in her street smarts rather than her book smarts. She has always been like that and is rather proud of it."

"So… you're like super-duper smart in compared to Lady Chiyo?" Luculia smiled innocently, perhaps a little too innocently for the old man's liking.

"Are you trying to get me to say something about your Lady Chiyo, little flower?"

"Noooo…" She trailed slightly guilty, "Buuuut…"

"But?" Watari prompted, placing his own pancakes and tea on the table and sliding a carton of milk with a straw to the two-year-old.

"Buuut… It would be kinda interesting to see how she reacted." She continued, her guilt wiped away by the amused smile on his face that he showed her as he sat beside her.

Lifting the child-sized utensils, the toddler cut a small portion of her food off and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Your Lady Chiyo once claimed that she was smarter than me during my final year in high school." Watari informed her.

Luculia blinked, "remffy?" she asked, her mouth full of pancake.

Watari frowned at her. "Chew and swallow before you talk." He scolded sternly.

The toddler did as she was told and had the decency to look ashamed. She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head and laughed, "Ehehe… sorry."

Chewing and swallowing his own food, the old man wiped his mouth with a napkin. "As long as you've learnt your lesson and do not repeat it."

She nodded animatedly, "I won't do it again! Scouts honour!"

Watari nodded in her direction approvingly, "That is all I need to hear."

Luculia quickly downed her current mouthful of food, "What are we gonna do after breakfast?" she asked curiously before cutting off another piece and digging in.

Fondly watching the girl enjoy her food, Watari hummed, thinking. "After you've digested your food well enough, we will begin on stretches and I will test your capabilities to see where to begin."

The toddler nodded animatedly and gave Watari a thumbs up in response because her mouth was full.

After she had swallowed, she put her utensils down on her plate and Watari stood up, taking both their dishes to the sink.

Placing the plates in the sink, Watari paused. "Go wash up first and meet me in my office afterwards. You can stay in your pyjamas, for now at least. We still need to take your measurements for training gear."

Luculia climbed off her carefully climbed down her chair.

"Okay!" she saluted while walking towards the stairs, "Thanks for breakfast, Watari! It was delicious!"

"It was no problem, little flower. I'm glad you enjoyed it, after all this may be the last time in a while that you will be eating pancakes instead of healthy, protein filled breakfasts."

Luculia paused midstep, "Ehhhhh…"

Watari chuckled, "Go on now, little flower." He shooed, "Don't take too long."

"_Okayyy"_ she responded from the top of the stairs.

"Italian only in the house please." He requested loudly, his voice echoing up the hallway.

"Yes, sir!" She yelled back.

* * *

When she was exploring the building the previous day, Luculia found out that if you take the elevator from ground level down to the house, it took you straight to the bottom floor of the two-story building.

When the doors open you see a lot of open space, there's a large square of lowered ground that contains two long couches positioned in an 'L' shape with a coffee table in the middle. A fireplace was placed within the wide separating wall that divided the area with the coffee table now dubbed the "Lounge" from the Bar. The kitchen was positioned directly to the right of the lounge from the perspective of the elevator.

Luculia had no idea exactly why Watari had a bar in the house but no dining table. She just took a guess that maybe he was the only one that lived here so he didn't need to have one? Maybe she'd ask him some time and maybe convince him to buy a dining table.

Now, back to the present, Luculia finished brushing her teeth and washing her face in Watari's bedroom bathroom, using a stool to reach the sink. Watari said that Chiyo had contacted him quite suddenly and Luculia was still rather young so Watari said that she could sleep with him in his room until her room was ready and she got a bit older.

Watari also told her that he would need to work on extra security measurements, but he would only do so once he had her working on some independent training of some sort.

Skipping down the stairs back towards the direction of the kitchen, Luculia popped her head into the kitchen to see if Watari was still there, which he wasn't.

_'Oh dear'_ She thought as she quickly picked up her pace, walking to where she recalled Watari's office to be.

_'From the stairs… it was past the kitchen and all the way down the right hallway. Yes! I think this is right…'_

Standing outside the closed door, Luculia knocked on the door. No reply.

_'Maybe I was wrong? No! I swear this was right!'_

Luculia knocked but still no reply. She was starting to freak out. He said not to take too long!

"Watari!" She called out.

A pause. No reply.

Her hands began to tremble, her eyes started to tear up, _her flames started to search for comfort._

_'Maybe the flames will help me find him?' _She thought in hope.

Sending her flames out with only her instincts as controls, she searched the building for Watari.

Luculia first trickled her flames under the door of the room that she was knocking on before, _'I don't feel him in there' _

She was confused.

She really must have gotten it wrong.

Luculia walked back into the main room and sat on the couch, staring at her hands. '_How far could these flames go?'_ She wondered.

_'I hope Watari isn't mad at me… I hope I'm not worrying him. Where is he?'_

Her flames suddenly decided to respond to her question, soaring through the air and up the other set of stairs. Luculia decided to follow them. The voice hadn't told her not to, so it seemed okay.

She climbed up the stairs one by one, her limbs so short that is was a relatively difficult and time-consuming process. Puffing by the time she got to the top, she felt his warmth. It was so bright, like a star.

_'Watari! He's here, he's here somewhere!'_

Luculia smiled in joy and relief, reaching out her flames to wrap them gently around his star and tugging it towards her.

One of the several doors in the hallway opened and the old man took a step out, "Luculia, are you alright?" he asked, concerned. His familiar voice bouncing off the walls.

She had barely known the man for a day, yet it felt like he has been her family for years. Her family that lost and she couldn't find until a few seconds ago.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she held her arms out to him, her flames tugging desperately against his soul towards her for comfort. A whimper escaped her lips.

Watari took long strides towards the upset toddler and scooped her up into his arms, allowing his flames to blend seamlessly within her own, coating her skin.

He sighed in the overwhelming feeling of home with the little girl in his arms. Tucking her into the crook of his neck, he gently stroked her hair. "It's okay, little flower. I'm here now."

He was her new family and would be until his dying breath.

* * *

** Harmonisation effects.**

Allowing the toddler to sleep off both the effects of harmonisation and from her outburst of panic, Watari silently took the measurements he needed to construct her training equipment.

No matter how much he wanted to protect her from the Mafia world, he would not be able to. Her bloodline stated that fact clearly.

Shuffling his little sky into a comfortable position on his lap, he rolled his chair to a comfortable distance from his desk.

Multiple screens littered his desk and the wall behind it. A drawing tablet lied closest to him in front of his well-used keyboard. Several designs filled their own individual screens, the old man taking glances at the toddler sleeping in his lap frequently to both check on her wellbeing and to try and envision the kinds of gear that would suit her.

It was difficult, he admitted. If this were any other student of his, he would have woken them up immediately and had them test and discuss capability, suitability and fighting style. He wouldn't be going through this.

Watari sighed, _'You're getting soft'_ he scolded himself, shaking his head side to side. _'Perhaps it is just the effects of harmonization.'_

Watari jotted down a note on the bottom right screen.

A high-pitched groan tugged at his attention. His little sky, sleepy and half-conscious, had her flames dancing around his, making sure that he was safe and nearby.

She pushed herself up using his thigh, stretching out her muscles and landing herself straddling the other thigh. Luculia gazed up at her new element with half-lidded eyes, "Watari?" she whispered huskily from sleep.

"Hmm?" He hummed absent-mindedly as he continued to work.

"You're sleepy." She stated.

The old man sighed again, "Indeed I am. That is one of the downsides of harmonization I suppose, it makes you feel so comfortable that you just want to sleep. However, I have some gear to produce for you, little flower." The toddler frowned, her forehead creasing. She didn't like that he was losing sleep because of her.

A finger poked her forehead, "You'll get wrinkles if you keep that up, little flower. I am almost done with the design, I will rest immediately after, I promise."

His sky resigned herself to his answer and looked towards his collection of screens, likely looking for something that she could help speed the process up with.

"Do you like any of these in particular?" He asked. There were lots of images, the clothing options were not as vast as she thought it would be. Watari had probably already decided them base on practicality for training.

She glanced over the large selection of weapons. Katanas, Rapiers, Bow and arrows… there were so many.

"What if I'm not big enough to learn what I like?" She questioned. It was a very valid question.

Watari smiled, "Then I will make a smaller version and we will learn. I am an inventor to the very soul, little flower. Small adjustments such as size do not come close to stopping you from learning what you want."

Luculia's mouth dropped in shock. She was kind of impressed.

"Are you secretly Iron Man?" She asked in awe.

Watari sweatdropped, exasperated but amused nonetheless. "Unfortunately, no, I am not. However, should you decide sometime in the future that you want to engage in combat with a mecha suit, I will try and help you build it. I would highly discourage it though. Flexibility and agility would be very valuable to you."

She looked up at him, "So, no mecha suits?"

"No mecha suits." He confirmed.

"How about that one?" His sky asked pointing vaguely towards a section of screens. Technically it wasn't her fault for having short and stubby arms.

Watari rolled his chair back and stood up, raising the toddler closer to the screens. "Which one, little flower?" He prompted.

She pointed again, "That one."

_'Strings?'_ Watari thought in wonder, _'An interesting choice, that one was a passing idea off a whim regarding puppetry.'_

"When you spotted this," He started, his voice starting to show his exhaustion, "How did you think you would utilise it?"

She sent him a worried look, clearly noticing how tired he was getting.

"My flames are like ropes to me." She tried. "When I tried to find you, I trickled like… thin strings below doors and under windows and stuff to check if you were there and tugged at your uhh… star! when I found you. I thought that maybe if I could do that in a friendly way that maybe I could tug at enemies' stars and maybe do something?"

Her face showed confusion at her own words. She could barely comprehend, herself what she was trying to convey but it was enough for Watari.

_'Ropes and stars, huh? Hmm…'_

He nodded approvingly, "Perhaps we can look at working with puppetry with you, little flower, However, that will be a task for later tonight." A notification pinged for their attention from the access card Watari had used to enter the building.

Watari placed the girl on the ground, gesturing for her to follow him as he walked out of the door.

She trailed along behind him like a baby duck as he strode down the corridor. Watari felt her flames tugging on his own for attention.

He raised an eyebrow slightly at the sky, informing her that she had received it, "Aren't you gonna sleep?" she asked.

"Very soon, yes." He reassured her. "We will first check your clothing for size and get you your ID all working and ready. I will then give you a small quiz that I had previously prepared to test where you are currently with regards to your academics."

"Oh okay."

The doors leading to the room at the very end of the corridor opened automatically after Watari punched in his pin into the pin pad, according to the beeping tune, Luculia deducted that it was a severely different code than the front door. Either that or Watari designed the pin pads to magically change notes every time you used them.

"This room, little flower, is the lab. The testing room is back down the hallway second door to your right. The lab holds all the pre-tested machinery or tools that have been determined to be working well enough for safe use."

Luculia gawked at all the fancy equipment, mindlessly walking through the room. "Woahh."

Two hands landed on her shoulders and turned her body to her right. "This is what I used to make your clothing, which is hanging on the rack over there."

He gestured to the single clothing rack that held several toddler sized clothes.

Walking over, plucking the first one off a hanger and passing it to the toddler, he walked back to the machine and took a seat on the stool next to the control panel on it's side.

"Try it on, little flower." He prompted, turning his attention to the machine and away from the little girl to make her less uncomfortable.

Luculia didn't actually mind. She was two, there really was nothing to hide from Watari who had lived basically 30 times her age.

The toddler pulled off her night dress over her head and slipped on the shirt and leggings. The shirt was plain grey and had a hood on the back. It reached down perfectly at her hips, giving her a slightly loose fit. The leggings were plain black capri leggings.

Watari sighed tiredly and hummed, having already looked back in her direction shortly after she finished getting dressed. "Looks good, little flower. Do you like it?"

The little sky turned around, showing him a 360 of her new look before smiling brightly at him. "_Yeah, I do!_"

"Good, good." He said, nodding happily, seeing as she liked his design. He was honestly much too tired to correct her slip up in language at that moment.

A buzz escaped a machine from the opposite end of the room, a small stack of paper gradually printing out of it.

Watari glided over to the machine, picked up the pile and stapled the corner.

"These are your quiz papers." The old man informed, leaning over and handing it to the approaching toddler, along with a small pencil and eraser set. "And some stationary."

Pulling a card out of his pocket, he handed it to the two-year-old. "This is your access card. Don't lose it."

"Now," He said finally, "I believe it is time for me to retire for a few hours."

He walked towards the doors, pressed the open button and spoke as they opened automatically. "The rest of your clothing were made to the same measurements, little flower. Begin on those quizzes for now and feel free to work anywhere in the house."

Luculia looked up from the papers in her hands and nodded. "Good night, Watari!"

The old man chuckled, "Good night, little flower."

The doors closed behind him.

* * *

**Little quizzes and tests.**

Luculia had smartly decided that the best place to conduct her quizzes was on hers and Watari's bed while he slept. Walking, what she believed was closer to Watari made her feel a warmth, walking away felt a little colder.

She glanced at the rack full of clothes. _'Oh boy, there's a lot of them.'_

The toddler hopped over to the chair that was previously occupied by watari and placed her papers and stationary on top of it. She then moved to pull all the clothes off the rack and cuddle the pile in her arms.

Supporting the pile of clothes with one arm, she carefully balanced the papers and stationary on top of the pile.

_'Ha! Success.'_

Thankfully both Watari's office and their bedroom were on the same floor. If Luculia had to balance everything she was carrying **and **walk down the stairs she was probably likely going to die. No joke.

Watari would probably be severely disappointed in her if that happened.

Wobbling side to side and trying to balance everything in her arms, Luculia made her way to their bedroom blind. Purely following the slight changes in temperature that she felt depending on the direction she walked.

Occasionally the voice would freak out telling her to stop walking. She didn't understand why until she poked her head out the side of the clothes and saw the steep drop of the stair case half a foot away from her feet.

Finally arriving at the room, Luculia realised she had no hands to open the door but the door suddenly opened automatically for her.

_'Weird'_ She thought.

Taking a step into the room, she noticed a piece of paper on the floor next to where she dropped her clothes.

_Dear Little flower,_

_I took a guess and assumed the chances are that you will likely follow me and do your quizzes in here were rather high._

_I left a bottle full of milk with a straw on my bedside table, please drink that as you work._

_Do not be afraid if you cannot solve a question. The quiz is to determine what stage you are at right now so some questions are meant to be difficult, maybe even impossible for you to solve as you are now._

_Good luck, and don't leave your clothing on the floor all messy. At least lay them flat and un-crumpled._

_\- Watari_

Luculia sweat dropped. Was she really that predictable?

The toddler smoothed out her clothes into a neat pile and picked up her papers and pencils. She tugged on the duvet, pulling herself onto the king-sized bed.

Seeing the bottle of milk on the side table, she grabbed it and took a sip before putting it back. She then shuffled her pillow to the side and began doing the quiz on the newly exposed bedsheets, lying flat on her stomach.

_Mathematics_

_1 + 2 = _

"…"

Lady Chiyo taught her some math before. What was it again? Something about fingers?

_'1… 2… 3…' _Her brain paused. _'…3 sounds right.'_

She scribbled the number down.

_'Okay! Good start.'_

_7 – 4 =_

_'Uhhh… 7 is like 2 more than 5 I think?'_

The toddler opened her hand and stared at the back of it. _'Hands have five fingers, so I gotta use my other hand!'_

Luculia put the pencil down on her paper and opened her other hand.

_'2 more than one hand, okay.' _She put down three of her fingers on her right hand and reduced the amount of fingers remaining one at a time.

_'Okay so… 1, 2, 3, 4. There, done!'_

She scratched down the number 3 again.

The rest of the math questioned went smoothly for awhile. There were very basic geometry questions, 'Identify the shape' and such as well as fill in the blank addition and subtraction questions. The two-year-old stumbled on the division questions, promptly giving up after looking at them in total bewilderment.

Next up was reading (She was good at reading!), after that was handwriting (Her chicken scratch was barely legible), after that was puzzles (which she really quite enjoyed doing) and she was starting to struggle on her language quiz when Watari suddenly rolled over, very much awake.

Luculia squeaked in surprise and rolled to the bottom corner of the bed and chucked her pencil at him which he caught with ease.

"_Y-you scared me!"_ She cried.

Watari chuckled, "Good morning, little flower. I apologise for scaring you." The toddler crawled back over to him as he leaned up on one arm, picking up her quiz with the other hand.

All she could see that he was wearing, was Watari's comfortable looking dark grey T-shirt. She kind of wanted to wear it too.

The old man sat up and leaned back on the bed frame. His knees were elevated such that he could write comfortably against his thighs.

Luculia crawled to his side and crawled under his right arm, leaning on his stomach, wanting to see what he was doing.

Watari hooked the mechanical pencil on the top of the papers and lifted the small girl onto his left side. It was relatively difficult to write with the toddler under him dominant arm.

She quickly got herself comfortable with no complaint and he began to stroked her hair absent-mindedly.

"You did pretty well, little flower."

Blinking at him, Luculia's face broke into a huge, bright grin at the praise. "Really?!"

The old man nodded with a kind smile, "Yes, really. Most children your age cannot solve subtraction above 5 let alone perform basic multiplication. You also performed extremely well on your reading in Japanese but your Italian had a couple of mistakes." Her flames danced as she basked in the praise.

"You're handwriting however needs a little bit of work, Ms. Chicken Scratch." He teased lightly, poking her stomach.

She puffed her cheeks and pouted, "I'm getting there!"

He just laughed, "Yes, yes. You'll get there soon.


	4. A Sarcastically Zappy Entrance

**Birthday Pictures.**

"Little flower, what do you want for your birthday?"

He received no answer, the silence lingered for a short moment.

"Little flower?"

"I dunno what there is..." She whispered sadly. "I-I uh… like Capri Sun!"

Watari smiled softly and ruffled her hair in a comforting manner, "It's okay, we can see what you want later on. We have to go get some groceries for the week maybe you'll see something whilst we're out, go get dressed."

Luculia smiled back and saluted as she walked over to their room, a slight skip obvious in her steps.

Watari stood at the elevator doors waiting patiently as the toddler ran up to his feet, holding her arms up to be carried. He smiled and leaned down to pick her up and place her on his shoulder like usual.

"All set?" She chirped an affirmative

"Access card?"

"Check!" She confirmed with a cheer, "I'm super ready, I promise. Let's go visit Muscles and Bella zia!"

"Yes, ma'am." Watari replied playfully. He somewhat hoped the toddler would never grow out of her love for her friends.

The easily amused Luculia proceeded to break into a fit of giggles.

* * *

The pair were currently situated in front of Jolly Market, Stefano had decided to join them as they walked by his stall and the adults were currently having a very interesting conversation between themselves that Luculia wasn't paying attention to at all.

The toddler raised a stubby arm in the direction of a young family that were making their way to the beach. More specifically she was pointing at the contraption that the father had hanging off his neck.

This action somehow dragged the attention of all the adults simultaneously.

"What's that?" she asked vaguely. A simultaneous look of confusion spread across three of the four adult's faces. Watari however, smiled sagely and replied accordingly.

"That's a camera, little flower. It takes photos that you can look at later."

The other three adults stared at him in bewilderment.

"She literally pointed in the general direction of the beach and you managed to identify not only the specific person she was pointing at but also the item that she was actually asking about?" Curly questioned, completely flabbergasted and impressed at the same time.

Watari just smiled at him causing Curly to sigh, "I don't know why I even doubted you."

She blinked at Watari in curiosity, ignoring Curly and his private mental explosion. "Like memories?" she asked.

Watari nodded an affirmative.

The toddler turned her attention back to the device. Her stare never wavering.

Watari knew exactly what to buy his little flower for her birthday.

* * *

"You look absolutely adorable, little flower." She beamed in response, "You need to take a picture with me too, Watari! We can ask Curly to take it!"

"Hey, I wanna be in it too!" he protested, fake tears dripping out of his eyes, "How could you forget about your Uncle Curly like that, Sweet Cheeks!"

Luculia giggled, "I want one with Watari first! Then you can join, okay Curly?"

The flowery man just sighed in resignation and took the camera from the toddler. The muscley man beside him threw an arm over his shoulder laughing and pointed at himself with his thumb.

"Muscles and Bella Zia are gonna join the family photo too, Principessa!"

Luculia sent Muscles a tiny thumbs up and Luca slyly kidnapped the camera from Stefano, triggering a squawk in protest.

Holding it up to her eye, she yelled, energetically waving for the pair's attention. "Say cheese, baby girl!" she called out.

"Cheese!"

_Click!_

"Curly time!" Stefano exclaimed running over to join the pair.

"Wait, one more!" Luca called over to the trio.

Luculia grinned cheekily and waved at Stefano, "Hehe, bye Curly~~"

Curly moved away from the camera's line of sight once more, dragging his feet along the ground. "Booo!" He whined.

_Click!_

"There, perfect!" The woman exclaimed with a happy smile.

Heels clicked against the pavement, approaching the group. "Oho? What is this?" an aged voice spoke out.

Luculia's ears perked at the familiar voice. "Mariana!" She exclaimed, "Come take a photo with us!"

The old woman smiled at the girl's energy. "I would be honoured to join you, little miss birthday girl. Happy birthday, by the way." She handed a small gift bag to the toddler which elicited an estatic expression on her face.

"Thanks, Mariana!" The old woman's smile grew.

Muscles took that moment to jog back to the group, a stranger trailing shortly behind him. "This is one of our regulars, Principessa. I asked him to take the photo."

The birthday girl smiled brightly at the stranger as Luca handed over the camera, briefly explaining the controls.

Stefano swooped in and snatched the toddler off the crouching old man's shoulder and placed her on the floor on his left, Watari's head positioned between the two. Luca sat herself down on Luculia's other side holding the girl's hand gingerly, Mariana slipped into the space behind the pair and Mario leaned down behind the whole group in the middle and wrapped his arms around Watari and the other reaching down to ruffle the birthday girl's head.

"Ready?" The camera man called out.

Luculia grinned up at the camera, posing a synchronised peace sign with the two young adults on both her sides.

"3! 2! 1! Cheese!"

_Click!_

Now, that would be a photo she would remember for the rest of her life.

* * *

**Verde.**

_Dingdong!_

Little footsteps could be heard hopping down the stairs.

"Watari!" She called into the kitchen, "Someone's here, someone's here!"

The old man in question popped his head out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a cloth, "Yes, yes. I heard the bell ring too."

Luculia ran over to the couches in the main room, grabbed the remote and turned on the front door CCTV. There was a little baby there.

Making immediate assumptions the now three-year-old pouted at the suit-clad old man that was approaching her. "_Mou! _I'm not a kid anymore, you didn't have to get me a play-mate!"

Watari barked out a laugh, "He's not a play-mate, little flower. He's a colleague of mine."

The self-proclaimed not-kid blinked. "But he's- he's like my age!"

"Physically, yes. I will allow him to explain himself to you when he gets in."

Pulling out his 'Access card', Watari pressed one of the many buttons aligned on the bottom left corner of the coffee table.

"The gate is open, Verde." He spoke clearly into the card.

Luculia blinked and stuffed her hand into her pocket, dragging her own access card out and just blatantly stared at it. This thing is a microphone too?

Watari walked towards the elevator door and pressed green button that was next to the up arrow.

Momentarily, the elevator doors opened and their guest(s?) entered the home.

Luculia gaped at the visitor for a second before a bright grin broke over her face. She sprinted to the newcomer petting him furiously.

If you thought we were talking about Verde, you were incorrect.

"Wooaaahh! A crocodile!" She exclaimed in excitement, slightly baffling the green haired guest. "Hi, Mr. Crocodile. How are you?"

Watari sweat dropped, "Verde, this is my ward, Luculia. Little flower, this is my old colleague, Verde."

She stood up, staring into the space above him before recollecting herself. She bowed slightly to the scientist and smiled at his physical form. Verde tilted his head in her direction in acknowledgement and greeting, a question lingering in his gaze.

"It's nice to meet you, Verde!" she greeted before skipping over to the kitchen, the crocodile trailing along behind her. "You're just in time for lunch! Watari, just finished cooking when you arrived. Come, come~"

Luculia subconsciously sent out a string of flames towards Verde and tugged his star towards her and the food. She didn't think it'd hurt him, well, at least she wasn't sure that it would. She thought her flames was harmless, like an extension to her body.

Verde's star was dim and restricted, it was also displaced compared to his physical form. 'Eyes are the window to the soul' was the saying she read once before, she believed that the stars that she saw were souls since they usually made the same expressions as one's eyes and typically stars were positioned behind their eyes.

Luculia had to adjust her eyes to focus on physical forms instead of flames, occasionally slipping.

Verde had almost doubled over due to the sudden flare of sky flames so close to the most sensitive part of his being. He barely pulled his flames back in time to hold himself from the flame attraction welded in with the innocent gesture.

Watari sent him a slightly concerned look that the lightning arcobaleno waved off as he recomposed himself, one hand against his chest. "Well shit." He cursed under his breath.

He received a disapproving look and a half glare. He huffed in response but obliged to the little sky's wishes.

"What's for lunch, old man?" Verde questioned, strolling casually into the kitchen like he owned the place.

Watari sent him look, a 'really?' could be read clearly off his face. Verde just responded with a nonchalant shrug.

Watari sighed in resignation, no matter how old Verde was mentally, he never grew up.

"Cottage pie." He replied before glancing over his form, "You have no luggage with you? Did you not expect to be able to stay?"

Verde paused, "…no."

Bright sparkles and flowers dances around the oven, the source of the energy being the sky whom was crouched down in front of it, watching it bake.

Listening in on the conversation, Luculia's head snapped over to the arcobaleno's direction at neck braking speeds, her eyes were literally sparkling.

"We have plenty of room here, the more the merrier, I say. I love making friends, I'm great at it!"

She made the mistake of looking at his star out of habit, whilst it wasn't as harmful when it came to regular stars but it was unnerving to the arcobaleno that _knew_ that if he wasn't cursed that would be the most respectful place to be looking when speaking to him.

Verde chose to brush it to the back of his mind for the moment and deadpanned at her, "Oh, really? And where are these friends of yours now?"

She sent him a guilty look. "…at their homes?"

He didn't believe her, not one bit. "Uh huh." He replied completely convinced, "And how many of these friends are within ten years of your age?"

"…none."

Watari ruffled her already permanently messy hair and gave an amused smile, "I suppose we do need to find you some friends your own age. As childish as he is, Stefano isn't exactly the ideal best friend you should be having at your age."

She huffed at him, "Curly's great." She defended, "He plays with me, and eats food with me and talks with me. I'm pretty sure that's a good friend."

Verde rolled his eyes, "I'm sure he is a great friend, brat. The issue is that he's almost three times your age."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'Oh.'" He snarked at her before going silent and whimpering internally when the girl continued to stare into the eyes of his non-existent adult body, the memory physically hurt.

"Little flower, what are you looking at?" Watari questioned, asking the question that Verde desperately wanted to ask but didn't have the right to as a house guest.

"His star…" she whispered in awe. "It's interesting and different to anything I've seen before."

Verde's eyes widened. Star? Could this girl be able to see people's flame cores? What an outbreak of science, if she could. He had to know how it worked.

Watari shut him down with a pointed look that clearly stated his refusal of any experiments regarding his ward's organs.

"Yeah, I can see ghosts too."

Verde's jaw dropped, "Wait really?"

"That's a lie, little flower." Watari pitched in.

"Half lie." She corrected matter-of-factly, "I can see passerby stars sometimes. I just ignore them."

Verde looked absolutely done with her. This kid just wasn't going to stop she was already borderline supernatural.

"That's insane, brat." A lie, he sort've wanted to see what these so-called ghosts wanted. He gave up on holding back his curiosity.

"Can you drag one into one of my machines?"

"Oh, sure!"

* * *

**"Puppets" and Strings**

It was a lovely summer afternoon on a Friday, not that they paid much attention to the days of the week. Naturally, the normal response to such a day was as it appeared.

Luculia was lounging on the couch in front of the TV, a controller in hand and angry grunts and pouts firing out of her mouth as she tried to physically turn her body to make her car drift better. Verde had situated himself beside her with another controller completely and utterly destroying her in every way shape and form.

"…you know, turning the controller won't make your character move that way."

Her face flushed and she spluttered, "Shush! That wasn't my intention, I swear. It just helps me play better!"

The look Verde sent her with regards to her claim was a deadpan stare that read 'oh, really?'. This kid had been losing left and right since they started. They started playing at almost 7am, it was 2pm.

She puffed her flushed cheeks up in irritation and snapped her attention back to the video game.

"You're going down this time!" She announced. The scientist sighed, "Maybe some other day, brat."

For a moment, Verde felt terribly bad for the kid but his pride didn't want to let him lose. His thought process ran through several sequences of the following.

Let the brat come first.

Oh, wait did Watari just walk in to watch?

Well, dayum. Maybe next year brat, I ain't losing with an audience.

Proceeds to annihilate her with the dreaded blue shell and banana combo.

Needless to say, this resulted in a very grumpy 4-year-old. Not for winning, oh no, she was fine with that. But for the fact that he dangled the treat in front of her face before kicking her in the metaphorical balls, jumping on her face and _smirking_ at her in amusement.

He was going to freakin' get it.

"Are you ready for training, little flower?" Lu turned her head to him and beamed, temporarily wiping away her irritation in favour of learning.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, scrambling off the couch and to the stairs. "I'm gonna go get changed. Thanks for cleaning up, Verde!"

Watari chuckled at Verde's offended look. That was just a dirty move, brat.

The trio gathered in the south training hall, it was the smallest of the three but still spanned a good could-probably-fit-two-cars garage area. The walls were white and plastered with reinforcement, the only thing that stood out in the plain room was the door and the widespread window that allowed for outside viewing.

Watari handed the young girl a spool of thread. The other two present just stared at him and the item in bewilderment.

"What on earth is she here to train?" Verde wasn't about to sit through a life lesson session full of inspirational quotes and likely knitting or sewing of some kind. He sent the thread a dubious look.

"No, seriously. If she's here to learn how to knit scarves for her future grandchildren, I'm going to neck."

Luculia snorted and Watari sent her a pointed look, she was 4 for goodness sake, she shouldn't know what 'necking' means outside of the scientific term. Watching material's fail under tension is not exactly amusing.

Her hands shot up to cover her snickers, Watari just sighed. "I'm sure you've noticed her excellent yet terrible control over her flames alongside the tremendous capacity she apparently holds."

Verde nodded and gestured for him to continue. "She described her precise flame usage and 'playing with strings and pulling stars' thus I thought it would be appropriate to teach her the ways of physical threads and potentially puppetry."

The scientist paled a few shades and nodded stiffly. Puppetry, he whimpered in his mind. The brat was learning freaking puppetry, she would be the cause of his upmost doom with all the chaos she could do with that stuff. Oh, and don't get him started on _razor threads_ when Watari said physical threads he 800% actually meant razor threads.

He needed insurance, goddamit! Well, he'd get the second-best thing.

"Ensure that stuff is never aimed at me, okay brat?"

"…" Oh, come on. Say it, please.

"Okay." Success. Now if I get hit by those things she'll feel half obligated to fund half my projects with her inheritance.

"…I'm not going to fund your stuff if she hits you a couple of times, Verde." Verde huffed, "Oh, come on."

Watari rolled his eyes and held his hand out to his sky for the thread back and subsequently held the spool up to attention. "This is normal thread. Not razor thread, not metal thread, not _wool for knitting_. It's normal thread that you would use to connect seams."

Verde sent him a pointed look, "No, we are not fixing clothing nor learning how to do so. She will be learning how to send out and control the movement of this before anything dangerous."

Watari pulled out the open end of the thread and passed it to the girl before giving her the rest of the spool. "Throw it at Verde, little flower. Try and wrap it around him with a single movement."

Verde looked completely betrayed. Watari had ignored his whole internal monologue about not wanting to die via brat and strings and had sent him straight into the gutter.

…

Verde was so done, he just wanted to die right there.

The brat was sitting next to him, throwing the little end of the thread at his face and he didn't even feel the want to yell at her for the blatant disrespect. Watari was sipping tea and observing, visibly enjoying his suffering.

The old man looked at the small silver watch sitting on his inner wrist after he finished his tea and stood up, taking the spool of thread from the girl as he rose.

She tilted her head in question. "Dinner time." He informed them.

Verde just gave up and let his body flop onto his back. He held up his hands to the two, "Carry your loyal training dummy, peasants."

And no, he was not adopting the mannerisms of a future psychotic prince.

* * *

Luculia was pouting, she could feel the lack of improvement or any sign of progress within her training and it was bothering her.

Watari looked contemplative, "Perhaps we should find something to connect the ends to. Razor wires are noticeably heavier thus may be easier to send out, but being able to use strings of any kind would be a good technique."

She squinted at him, "How? Not everyone holds string with them."

He chuckled, "No, but everyone does wear clothing. At least everyone that you should be interacting with. Hair would do as well. It's like the excess threads that sometimes come off your sweaters."

Her mouth formed an o and she made a noise of understanding.

The green-head sent his old "friend", more like colleague now, a glare. "And you couldn't have thought of that 2 hours ago?"

His smooth chuckling continued, "No, of course not. Patience is a virtue, my friend."

"Waiting is one thing, waiting and being hit in the face by strings is another. Now, what were you looking to attach to those strings?"

Watari leaned back in his seat, "Perhaps, needles, knives or senbon? Those work well with poisons as well."

The little sky whined, "I don't like needles! They scare me." Her lightning rolled his eyes. "You aren't the one being poked, you're doing the poking."

She puffed her cheeks in annoyance, her stubborn nature revealing itself. "I still don't like it."

It was clear that nothing he would say would get into that stubborn head of hers so he redirected the job to Watari, passing the baton with his 'now, it's your turn' look.

"Well, what do you want to use, little flower?" The oldest asked her. Giving her the option to choose, in his mind, would either allow her to suggest her own methods or give in and agree to one of theirs. It was honestly a flawless psychological trick to use on children.

The girl in question went silent, she didn't know what else she could use. "I guess senbon wouldn't be bad for now… _for now_. I'll think about it, maybe I'll come up with something else."

Watari nodded sagely, "Good thinking, now I will fetch some senbon to work on for tomorrow after dinner."

"I don't want to do poisons though," A shiver crawled under her skin, "that stuff is even scarier."

Watari tutted her, "Now, don't go writing things off. I'll have you know, Shamal is very well versed in his ways of medicines, diseases and poisons. I'm sure if I pay or pull a few favours from him, he'd be willing to teach you."

Verde stared at them with a bored look, "No, if you age a few years till you're at least 12, he'll judge your worth as a woman and teach you purely to get you to love him... if you're pretty."

"…what."

* * *

**Cooking 101 - (This was meant to be in a different chapter but I got lazy so it's here, wooo)**

"How bad could this be?" Verde questioned. "You only managed to almost burn water the last time you tried to help bake a cake."

The 4-year-old puffed her cheeks in irritation, "Hey! Baking and cooking are like, different… I could be a cooking extraordinaire!"

Verde snorted, "Yes, yes, brat. I believe in you" he commented dryly.

Luculia dragged the stool next to the one Verde typically occupied and brought it in front of the stove. Verde had made himself comfortable on the kitchen benchtop right next to it. He would never admit it to anyone but he was actually legitimately concerned that the little sky would somehow cook herself instead of whatever monstrosity she was trying to dish up.

"So, what are you trying to make again?"

"Pasta! Watari loves creamy tuna pasta." She replied excitedly. Luculia had always wanted to do something in return for everything that Watari had done for her in the past two years and this was her chance. (Almost) nothing Verde said would stop her!

Verde paused. …Oh, creamy pasta doesn't sound too hard. Maybe she won't die today.

"Do you have a recipe, brat?"

The girl froze halfway climbing up the stool, "Uhh… I was getting to that!" she climbed all the way back down and ran into the bookshelf that was against the wall in the main room.

She slipped the book out of the shelf and waved it at the lightning arcobaleno, "I got it now!"

The scientist rolled his eyes and signalled her towards him, "Alrighty, come back then."

As Luculia toddled her way back, Verde pulled out a pot from the cupboard and placed it on the electronic stove for her. She plopped the recipe book on the left side of the stove in between herself and Verde.

Verde flicked open the book to the bookmarked page. Luculia hovered her finger over the list of ingredients. "So… fettuccine, tuna, I think canned would be fine… milk, cream, pepper . Easy!"

Her lightning sent her a look of disbelief, "You said that before you tried making that cake, brat."

"Booo~" she whined.

* * *

_30 mins later…_

By this time, Verde had started dozing off in boredom. The brat was just stirring and adding and repeat. I mean look its like the third time she's added a little bit more of tu-

"OI BRAT THAT'S CHILI TUNA." He shouted in alarm causing her to pull the arm she was pouring the tuna with back due to reflex. She put the can down on the bench and put a hand to her chest, breathing deeply to calm herself. "You scared me! Gosh!" she complained, "It's not like it would be terrible with chilli!"

Verde sighed in resignation. Honestly… this brat.

"It would change the **entire** flavour," He explained calmly. "canned tuna has flavouring added to the chilli flavour meaning the whole thing would taste more like tomato and chilli than actual tuna. Plus, neither you nor I will be able to eat that spicy shit."

"Well… it's for Watari anyway?" she attempted to reason.

Verde just closed his eyes, shook his head and sighed, "No, we are not going to starve tonight and watch the old man eat your strange and deluded attempt at making tuna pasta. He would probably eat it no matter how terrible it was, smile and compliment you."

Lu sighed, looked down at her creation and pouted, "That sounds kinda accurate."

"It is accurate, brat. Now go get the smoked flavoured one and dump it in so we won't starve to death tonight."

* * *

Mix…mix…mix…stir…stir…mix…

"Are you done now, kid?" The girl ignored him and pulled open a drawer on the her right, grabbing two forks, passing one to Verde.

Well, his question was half answered at least.

As the girl reached her fork into the pot to taste, Verde hit the utensil away and put to the side. She stared at him with a flat, unamused look to which he returned with an equal amount of very amused amusement.

"Get a serving bowl or a plate or something. Do you really want to give this to Watari in the pot?"

"Fiiine"

…

_Beep!_

The sound of the doors of the elevator opening glided through the air and to the cooking pair.

"Ahhh! He's back!" Luculia screeched, quickly jumped off the stool and grabbed the closet serving bowl she could find.

Watari's shoes could be heard slightly around the entrance of the building. He was likely taking his time taking off his shoes and listening to her adorable attempts to rush.

"Verde, catch!" she yelled as she chucked the bowl up at him and clambered up the stool. The arcobaleno stumbled slightly but found a decent grip on the glass bowl before it fell… for a while, that is.

The little sky decided that it would be a great idea to pour the food into the bowl while he was still trying to get steady. This caused the bowl and the pasta inside of it to fall out of his hands.

The pair gasped in horror as the glass bowl plummeted to the ground.

All hope was not lost however as the old man that they had been cooking for had previously entered the kitchen and was watching them in amusement. As the bowl fell, Watari caught it with his foot and placed in on the kitchen bench next to Verde, his groceries were sitting on the bench behind him.

Verde stared at the bowl of perfectly safe pasta and Luculia sighed in relief before also staring, but her nervous gaze was on the somewhat amused man in front of her that she could feel a lesson dropping out of.

"Uhh... Welcome home?" she greeted nervously. "We made dinner?"

The old man chuckled, "I can see that. Now, let's go get some plates and have some dinner, shall we?"

Suddenly, a slight slurp ringed the attention of both the oldest and youngest in the room to the middle child. Verde had taken his fork and pasta-napped three strands or so to taste test.

"Wait what the fuck, it's actually good?" he spoke genuinely surprised.

Lu glared at him and whined dramatically, "_So cruel, Verde!"_

Watari frowned at both of them. "Language. Both of you." He scolded.

"Sorry, Watari." They replied in unison, with their heads lowered.

"Now go get the plates, little flower."

"Okay!"


	5. A Sunny Hospital Visit

**A big thanks to Cnidri for being this story's very first review. Bravo~! 3**

* * *

Today was a very unusual day. The skies were dull and worryingly overcast. Today, Mariana had decided to take the trio with her on her trip to the hospital for a checkup. Her age was beginning to catch up to her, she explained to the group, these check-ups were for precautions. She thought it would be an interesting experience for Luculia to visit a different side of Sicily.

Well, I mean that would be what she would like them to think. Realistically she just didn't feel like driving and used the 6-year-old as a means to attract a free chauffeur.

No matter the intent, the day would be a fun little trip outside the house anyway.

Verde tagged along for the raw purpose of analysing how far government medical systems had advanced. He wasn't expecting a great deal but it was somewhat worth keeping an update on.

In comparison to the rest of what Luculia had seen of San Vito lo Capo the hospital building looked very high tech. The building was tall and plain, a dull white in colour, lots of windows.

The glass doors at the entrance buzzed slightly as the doors smoothly opened.

"Woaaah!" Lu exclaimed in awe, "It's so white!"

"Brat, you're impressed by almost anything. Also, make sure not to say that to actual people, they might get offended."

Luculia sniggered and sent him an evil look. Mariana chortled out a laugh, "Oh boy, I hope I'm there when you do that, little missy."

Watari faux coughed to grab their attention, "No-one is going to do that." He corrected.

The completely oppositely aged pair of girls pouted, giving completely different approaches to the expression but providing the same effect. Luculia was more resigned, whilst Mariana was more playful with a hint of 'haha, I'd like to see you try to stop me' in her tone.

"Aww…",

"I agree, lil' missy. Aww, indeed."

Verde just face-palmed. Idiots, he was surrounded by idiots- Well not Watari at the current moment. Female idiots, he decided on, he was surrounded by female idiots.

The group, half filled with misfits, walked up to the front counter where they were greeted by the young woman currently working there. Seeing as how she greeted the oldest of them, she must have been a long-time worker.

"Oh, Mrs. Mariana! Here for your regular appointment?" The old woman simply nodded sagely in response.

"Your doctor is ready for you when you're ready. Room 122." The young worker continued, placing the A5 piece of paper that had just been printed out for the old woman to take, "That would be your appointment slip to give to the doctor."

Mariana nodded thanks to the young lady and glided around the front desk and across the main reception area towards the set of elevators.

As the old woman lead them to the second floor, Verde had decided to catch a ride on Watari's shoulder whilst Luculia chose to toddle along behind the group.

See, if this were a typical situation or even if Luculia was remotely a normal kid, the adults of the group would insist on the girl walking alongside or in front of them. But in this situation, it was completely fine. Luculia could just follow the stars if she got lost and she could literally make people keel over by lightly tugging on their fragile star but pulling away before any kind of bond could be implied.

An evil trick but what works, works. She wasn't a bad or rowdy kid most of the time either, if she wanted to run off, she'd tell Watari beforehand.

The dysfunctional family walked past dozens of rooms before reaching room 122, some of the doors were open, some closed. The blinds of most of the rooms were pulled up to allow for visitor viewing during the current time of day.

Oh, and Luculia didn't actually make it to room 122, she got distracted by a very familiar face around room 114.

Calling out to Watari informing him of her movements, she bolted through the door to her direct right and ran straight into a pair of arms. Keiman the crocodile trailed closely behind her.

She didn't know exactly how Verde managed to smuggle him into the hospital or how Keiman managed to smuggle himself in but she just assumed it was one of his newest weapons that she didn't know of yet.

The old man simply smiled and waved off both the little sky's antics and Mariana's questioning gaze. Verde just looked completely done with life.

"Shamal!" she called excitedly, "You didn't tell us you were visiting us again!"

The man in question scooped the 6-year-old up onto his lap and scribbled a few messy notes onto a piece of paper before standing up and swinging the younger girl up into the air.

Luculia squealed in delight. "What are you doing here, my little Bella?" he asked, placing the girl on her own two feet.

"Mariana needed to come in for a check-up, so I came to keep her company!"

"Mariana…? Is she a pretty lady, Bella?" he questioned slyly, a single eyebrow wiggled up and down in a suggestive manner.

The little sky looked innocently contemplative, "I think she's pretty pretty for her age?"

The young man's smirk only widened in glee as he imagined several things that Luculia probably didn't know was possible. "Ohohoho, you do me a great service, little Bella~"

She shot him a weird look, "You're weird, Shamal."

"In the best possible way, right Bella~?" Shamal put a hand to his chin, his perverted grin still spread across his face.

Luculia opened her mouth to respond but someone beat her to it.

"Wrong!" A squeaky voice busted in with. The window had been shattered and a blonde boy flew through the forcefully opened window and straight into Shamal shoving them both into the wall.

The pair leaned, twitched in the newly formed crater. She somewhat wondered when someone else would notice and call the police or something, but no one did.

A baby soon leapt through the window, his trajectory aiming to land a nice solid 'dynamic entry' on the blonde boy's stomach and likely causing a lot more intentional pain.

Luculia stared at his star in interest, it was like Verde's! Another displaced dimmed down star. His one, however, felt more like Watari's with its light feeling somewhat warm.

Despite having plenty of experience dealing with adult-acting babies with Verde, the girl still couldn't help but slither a thread of sky flames around the new-comer's star and gently tug. To see if he reacted any differently

Her action caused the baby to stumble slightly and misaim his kick landing on Shamal's face instead. He reacted better than Verde at least, Verde just about almost threw up.

Luculia sweatdropped, _'Ahahaha… sorry not sorry Shamal.'_

The fedora wearer effortlessly bounced off Shamal's face and landed on the floor, a decent distance away from the girl. He sent her a look of pure suspicion which was washed away immediately and replaced with a sinking feeling within his stomach when he realised where she was looking.

She averted her gaze back to his cursed form and simply smiled innocently at him before she eyed the groaning doctor with an approving gaze. The man-child smirked in light amusement, the sinking feeling never leaving him much to his discomfort. Oh, he could get along with this one indeed if she would just stop inducing such feelings.

She smiled kindly at the stranger-baby, he just stared back at her with a stoic face, but she could feel him analysing her. The little green chameleon on his hat poked it's tongue at the girl in a happy greeting.

Her eyes could only shine brighter in joy. Oh, how she loved animals, they were soooo cute!

Her flames flickered wildly around her form and both Shamal and Reborn grimaced slightly.

The suit-clad baby was spiritually struggling. The girl was obviously a sky, a young sky that would be easy to take advantage of given the open-nature of her flames. He was almost completely sure that if he were to even give the slightest hint that he wished to bond, her flames would grab at the chance like a child wanting a parent's attention.

"Oi Pervert Shamal," he called out to the semi-conscious doctor, expecting his immediate attention. Needless to say, he didn't receive that. Noted when the doctor scrunched his face up in discomfort due to the flare of flames.

Luculia tilted her head slightly, "Pervert…?" she pulled a face at the doctor and paled several shades, her wild flames, staggering their movements to a hold. He was going to hit on Mariana. _Mariana!_ Her poor, ill, grandmother of a figure.

"H-h-he…" the girl stomped up to him as he slowly came to and kicked him in the balls, heavily amusing the hitman. "Leave Mariana alone! She's… she's too good for you!"

The not-baby smirked and half snorted at the man condescendingly as he doubled over onto the hospital floor, "How does it feel, Shamal? An 83-year-old woman is too good for you."

Shamal's head shot up, in shock. "SHE'S 83?" He exclaimed, "Bella, I thought you said she was pretty!"

The girl pouted and shrugged, "Yeah I did, 'pretty pretty for her age' I said. It wasn't a lie." I mean, it was technically his fault for making assumptions in the first place.

Fake tears weld up in the corner of his eyes as she crawled dramatically towards the youngest in the room, "You betrayed me, Bella!" he cried as he knee'd the forgotten blonde in the gut, trying to get past- well over him. The poor boy squawked in pain before passing out again. She swore she could see the slight image of a ghost floating out of his mouth.

Luculia winced in pity for the boy but her attention was quickly diverted back to the approaching doctor.

"Nonsense," she started nonchalantly, "I didn't lie about anything, Mariana is truly a pretty person I'll have you know."

The young-ish man continued to cry and crawl closer and closer to the girl. "But Bella~ I thought you loved me!". A shiver crawled under her skin as she took a slight step back away from him.

_Closer…_

_Closer…_

_Closer…_

_(You know, he's not gonna like hurt you or anything. You're completely safe!)_

_Closer…_

_(Oh, hush, Voice, he's like… crying kinda. He's probably gonna climb up my body to cry on me.)_

_Closer…_

**CHOMP.**

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A very not-manly scream (screech), exited the doctor's mouth.

"Oh, hi Keiman." She chirped to the crocodile. Keiman released Shamal's foot from his mouth a sent her a very crocodile-worthy and toothy grin.

The fedora baby cocked his gun at the animal, recognising it. A frown made its way over his face. "Is Verde here?" he interrogated.

The answer to his question came not in the form of a nod from the animal but rather from the girl to whose flames he had comfortably situated himself in.

"Yup," she chirped in response, "I think he's still with Watari and Mariana."

He looked up and blinked at the girl, silent in contemplation.

"R-reborn…" the forgotten blonde groaned, finally regaining consciousness.

With a polite manner engraved into her brain (due to Watari more than Chiyo), the little sky turned to the blonde. "Ah, good morni-"

A **BANG**, another brief wince of pity and a loud groan cut her off sharply.

"Shut up, Baka-Dino." He scolded with a giant green 10-ton hammer in his hand. Dino groaned again in pain,

"So- "

A glare loomed over him. Dino smartly shut his mouth.

Luculia sweat dropped with a nervous smile, staring at the poor boy in slight pity. Oh, boy, she had been feeling a lot of pity for him.

Seeing as the girl was distracted, Reborn's sadistic mind decided to use the opportunity to test the sensitivity of her flames. She was seemingly able to trigger the sensitivity in other people's flames and even sense and feel them to some extent. Even though he wouldn't admit it, the concept of her capacity and natural affinity to the use of her flames was interesting and very much worth being her ally for, at the very least he needed to be on her good side.

Reborn's flames poked at Lu's causing her to jump slightly. Reborn smirked at her in amusement causing her face to flush. Ohoho, a young, wild _and_ very sensitive sky. How interesting.

"What's your name?" he started the conversation off with, "And how exactly do you know Verde?"

She looked contemplative. Watari had always told her not to tell anybody her name but… Reborn made her feel like it was okay to talk to him. The voice didn't make her feel uncomfortable for wanting to talk to him but rather somewhat encourage it.

"Luculia." She told him plainly, "My name's Luculia and Verde is Watari's colleague so he's staying at my place right now."

"I see." Reborn sat down on the patient bed and sighed. Watari was a Sun, he noted, recalling the last time he had met the man.

Watari was a few years older than he would've been if he had actually aged properly. He was a smart man. If Watari was living with the girl, she must already have a sun. No intelligent person would refrain from harmonising with such a friendly and powerful sky.

A pair of young arms, a hum of delight and a slight rock from side-to-side from Luculia snapped him from his thoughts.

Shamal and Dino just stared at the girl in disbelief. She was bloody rocking Reborn side to side.

"It's been so cold recently~" she commented lightly, "you feel kind of like Watari, Reborn. _So warm~_"

The girl plonked herself on the patient's bed that Shamal had in 'his office' and kicked off her shoes with practised expertise, her shows landing perfectly against the wall near the bed. She positioned herself facing the window and turned Reborn to face her body and curled around his form.

She was making such bold moves around him that Reborn just let her do it. He was rather amused that she had the audacity to do such, it was harmless and honestly even more amusing to see Idiot pair's expressions.

The back of his mind also noted that the girl was also a potential threat in the future. Her hold of her flames would only grow stronger under the guidance of intelligent persons such as Watari and his fellow arcobaleno. He wasn't stupid, if he had the chance to be this girl's friend, he would take it. She seemed like a nice person anyway.

Reborn kept his flames tightly within him allowing only intentional streams of flames to leave his body. Many have tried and failed to force him into harmonization due to the strength of his Sun flames. Even though the girl already had a sky, her odd affinity to flames, in general, made it a possibility that she perhaps could harmonize with more than one flame type. He wouldn't risk it.

Luculia, however, unlike people might have thought, wasn't completely ignorant of the situation. She knew when someone was refraining from harmonisation with her like any other sky would if they found an element as strong as Reborn was. But she understood it must be stressful for someone to have to compress their flames with such skill and to such a degree.

She genuinely had no intention of forcing her flames into him if he didn't want it.

The young sky gently raised and placed a hand on his head, slipping his fedora off and placing it on the sheets beside them.

"I won't hurt you, you know." She whispered sadly under her breath such that only he could hear her.

"I won't touch you if you don't want me to."

Reborn found himself letting go. He found himself just breathing, basking in the feeling of home that her flames radiated against him as she hovered them around him. They did not touch him, they did not try and force themselves on him.

Her control at that moment impressed him to a point and he truly appreciated the chance to breathe.

* * *

By the time, Mariana had finished her appointment and Watari and Verde had gone with the woman to pick up their little sky from wherever she had disappeared, Reborn and Dino had already been long gone but Reborn decided to toy with Verde a little and left Leon with the young sky temporarily.

When Verde entered Shamal's office, still on Watari's shoulder, he full on glared at the offending creature that was on Luculia's shoulder. The poor girl thought he was glaring at her and started panicking.

"Brat!"

"_Y-yes?" _She stuttered out.

"Where did you find that chameleon?"

"Oh! I made a new friend, you see."

"His name wasn't Reborn, right?"

"…yes, I believe that was his name. He was quite sweet you see."

"That man is about as sweet as my ass."

"…"

"You must have a very sugary ass, Verde."

"Oh, fuck off."

A cough and a very heavy level of killer intent was produced by the old man standing at the door.

"**Language, children. I needn't repeat myself again.**"

"Sorry, Watari…"

Verde cleared his throat to clear the tension. "Anyway… You didn't 'tug' his 'star', did you brat?"

The girl blinked at his question, "He had such an interesting star, of course I did!"

The arcobaleno facepalmed

"But, I only did it really gently!" She remedied. "He kept holding his flames in a lot and it looked really painful, so I didn't touch him with my flames after."

"So… you didn't make him pass out or anything?"

"…no?"

"Good. Keep it that way."

"He was cute though."

"Stay away from Italian men, brat." He advised her. "They're evil creatures, especially ones in hats."

Luculia blinked, "Watari is an Italian man with a hat."

Verde paled several shades under the amplified killer intent induced smile sourced from the said Italian, "I mean Italian men in Fedoras. Yes, fedoras. More specifically Reborn. You know, what? Just stay away from Reborn."

* * *

"Dino Cavallone?"

Watari nodded, "Yes, that's the name of the boy that Reborn is currently tutoring. He is the heir to his own Italian Famiglia."

"Ohh... Are we part of any famiglia?" Watari's smile turned slightly strained, he really didn't want to answer that question. He supposed it was inevitable to avoid forever.

"My blood belongs to no famiglia, yours does, however that is a tale for another day in the far future."

Lu wanted to protest but wisely shut her mouth not wanting to anger the typically calm faced man. "So, we don't respond to anyone's orders...?"

The old man chuckled tiredly, "I am a freelancer, so no. We do not need to file reports for any superiors. At the very most, you would need to file a report for me, should anything worrying happen that I am unaware of."

Watari didn't like the uncomfortable silence that arose after their small conversation any more than Luculia. He knew she was curious about her own lineage but she would not be told until she was old and strong enough to defend herself should she be captured and interrogated.

"...Do you wish to attend schooling, little flower?" She blinked owlishly at his sudden question. She hadn't even thought about the possibility of attending school. She knew they were in the underworld business, most likely in the Mafia, so what kind of school caters for that sort of crowd?

"It's a school known as Mafia Academy. Not the most creative of names but neither is Mafia Land, both places are run by the same unity associations and are both strongly neutral grounds. You would be safe from assassinations and kidnappings from other Famiglia within school grounds, however, I don't believe they have rules against student-against-student brawls."

Lu tilted her head, "I assume they don't teach us how to get into college but rather how to handle weapons?"

Watari nodded a half affirmative, "Whilst they do teach you how to survive in the Mafia, they also do teach you basic academic subjects like a regular school would. After you graduate or drop out, however, you are thrown straight into the deep end and within the first month or so, if you survive you'll survive for several years to come."

Luculia was interested. A school where there would be people her age that could spar and play fight with her. Potential friends that she could make and fight alongside, it sounded almost magical but she knew better than to just accept things blindly without information.

"Is there an entrance exam...?" She had seen enough scary movies to know what evil school had in place for their schools. Like Naruto! Zabuza's entrance exam to what would be equivalent to primary school was revolting.

Whilst it was a good habit to try and suck out any and all details about something you are entering yourself into, Watari somewhat wished the girl would just trust him to not ask about the entrance exam because he really didn't want to discourage her future endeavours into inter-famiglia connections and making friends because of simple risks that he knew she wouldn't take but that he knew she could easily overcome with the right mindset.

"Yes..." he replied hesitantly. "You will be tested on your creativity, academics and wit through a series of unknown tests."

The voice was so sceptical that it felt like to Luculia that the voice was eyeing the grandfatherly man disbelievingly. Lu frowned, "And what's the catch?"

"...if you fail then the both you and your sponsor will be assassinated."

She grimaced as if physically hurt by his words, "I don't think I want to go anymore." she revealed, sadly.

A rough hand patted her head comfortingly and Watari let his flames feed into her own, hovering over her skin to promote the feeling of familiarity. "Don't write it off completely, okay? We'll speak about this another time."

Lu kinda did want to go to school though, maybe she'd see Reborn there again since Dino would probably be there because he was an heir.

...

She sighed, man this stinks.

* * *

**Slightly shorter chapter this time, but not by too much I think.**


	6. A Capri-Sun-Triggered Storm

As another morning came around, Watari was in the kitchen making breakfast and Verde was sitting on one of the kitchen stools, Luculia's stool actually…

Dragging her feet across the floor towards the fridge, the now 7-year-old pulled open the fridge door using her entire body weight as the pulling force.

To her utmost sadness, she noticed that there was no Capri-sun and no milk either.

A whine bubbled from the back of her throat,"Who drank literally everyth-" She froze, staring at the not-so-innocent scientist, no, thief! and the objects he currently held in his possession.

Verde had used the last of the milk for his morning coffee! She glowered at him as he knowingly smirked in return from the kitchen bench.

To her absolute horror, the situation was even _worse_. He was sipping on the last Capri Sun _and_ his coffee sat innocently on the table in front of him, currently untouched. What absolute BS. Asshole. Not that she'd say that out loud, Watari would kill her and her budget for drinks.

She was just soooooo tempted to just swipe the hot drink from him but held in the urge knowing that she would 100% get scolded for her actions… So, instead she just gave his star a nice big tug causing him to spit his current mouthful of her favourite drink out onto the table in surprise.

She scrunched up her face in disgust to hide her inevitable smirk of victory and to contain her laughter.

"Ewww~" She mock cried. Verde sent her the death glare of all glares.

She smirked, she couldn't help it.

"Don't forget to clean that up " She singsonged, skipping through the kitchen towards the elevator door. "Watari~ I'm gonna go get more Capri-sun and milk!"

"Tell Mario to put it on my tab.", Watari called after the girl.

She poked her head back into the kitchen and saluted, "Yes, sir! Do you need anything else?"

"My dignity," Verde grumbled in reply, wiping the table begrudgingly with the dishcloth that Watari had passed him shortly before to clean up.

The girl smiled cheekily, "Can't buy what doesn't exist~"

Verde's face flushed slightly for a split second in absolute mortification before he composed himself and sent a stream of lightning flames through the thin string of sky flames she was about to use to jab him with.

Luculia squealed in shock and her cheeks puffed up into a pout, a habit that she had never broken out of. Her cheeks were slightly red from embarrassment.

"Watari!" She whined, unashamed for blatantly tattletaling.

Watari chuckled, clearly amused by and used to their antics. "I believe you deserved that one, little flower."

Her pout only deepened, "I feel the love."

Verde coughed, a sly smirk sliding onto his face, "What love?"

She just threw the TV remote at him as she walked past it. His laughs echoed through the house as the elevator doors opened.

"_I'm going now!"_ She announced, Verde only laughed louder.

"Stay safe, little flower. Don't let Stephano kidnap you again."

* * *

Half dead and deprived of her lovely morning drinks, Lu dug through her pockets, pulled out her access card and swiped it through the terminal. She then proceeded to make her way up to street level.

Finally arriving at ground level, wearing her trusty comfy sweater half tucked into a pair of loose-fitting soccer shorts, she set off towards Jolly Market.

It was still decently early with it being about 8 am. The morning air was chilly and the Italian streets in the morning were often especially tense and dangerous as it wasn't an uncommon trait to be moody and/or grumpy during this time of day.

The mafia was also really _big_ in Italy, especially Sicily, so she couldn't be too careful even if this particular section of Sicily wasn't the most mafioso dense.

Wanting to get the chore done quickly, she ran down the street and weaved through the crowd, dodging people that were making their way to their usual day-time jobs when she accidentally bumped her thigh into someone quite roughly.

Typically, she would have simply apologised but this star was dimmed, in pain and the worst of all _falling because of her._

_'Catch it, quick!' _The voice commanded.

Instinctively listening, she wrapped her flames around the falling star and tugged it as hard as she could towards her own, trying to catch it before it fell to the ground and injured itself any further. She would be mortified if she watched someone's star fade because of her.

After she had steadied the star, she bowed and apologised profusely, stopping mid-bow realising whom she had bumped into. A child. Oh god, she was a bad person. She knocked over a child!

Realisation flooded her veins as she recalled the state that the child's star was in. She was furious, was he abused? No person, let alone a child should have that dimmed, weak pulsed star.

She was completely panicked. So much that she didn't notice the position of the star because the poor victim had fallen over.

The morning workers passing by only gave the pair a brief glance before moving on. They must have brushed it off as a simple accident.

Her flames trembled in relief and worry. The urge to help the pained star was digging into her conscience.

The child had fallen onto his backside but now he was sitting up, staring up at her from the ground looking very... very out of it. He looked as if he were drunk, or perhaps ill. Luculia noted the clean slices on the fabric of his clothes. Her eyes widened further when she noticed the pacifier hooked onto the front of his clothing. It was just like Verde's.

_'We need to get out of here'_

Glares and grunts of irritation begun to arise from the moving stream of people, they had been standing idly for far too long. They needed to move before they were confronted.

Lu quickly stumbled over to his small form and picked him up into her embrace where he instinctively snuggled himself further into her arms for comfort. An action, the child felt himself feeling slightly ashamed of doing but much too tired to act otherwise.

She shook her head to break herself out of her daze and regain her composure whilst the baby dozed off, currently struggling to remain barely awake.

Not wanting to be run over or further upset anyone, she quickly continued her way to the market.

"Good morning, Curly!" she whisper-shouted, running right past the eccentric man. He blinked, surprised by her sudden entrance and departure. "Good morning, Sweet cheeks!" he called back to her disappearing form, smiling fondly at the girl, simultaneously waving her a hello and good bye.

Oh, she had grown up so much. He almost felt like crying.

…

Wait was that a child in her arm? Nononononooooooo! Sweet cheeks, no!

Jogging up to the familiar building, Mario chose that moment to wander out of the front door with a few boxes stacked in his arms. The girl swerved right around him and slipped into the shop.

"Woah! Careful there, Principessa!" He called out to her.

She turned around, running back a few steps, "Sorry, Muscles!" She whisper-shouted in response.

Luculia slowed herself to a stop in the middle of the shop.

"Bella Zia!" She called out, walking deeper into the building. The pretty woman walked out of the back room and towards the visiting girl.

"What's wrong, baby?" She asked curiously but paused when she saw what was in her arms. "And what's with the actual baby?"

Luculia laughed sheepishly, "I bumped into him on the way here so I was planning on taking him home so Watari could fix him up."

The woman looked amused, "Alrighty then. What do you need? Capri Sun, I assume?"

She nodded, "Yup, and some milk, please. Verde keeps drinking it all."

Luca laughed, "Of course he did baby. I highly doubt it was a combined effort between yours and his strange love for all things coffee." Her sarcasm was clear in her tone but the younger girl decided to ignore it. Oh, her Bella Zia didn't realise the state of the milk wars within the house.

Flicking her nose into the air, Luculia hmphed, "But of course!" she claimed and proceeded to send the blonde lady a cheeky grin.

She shuffled the child into her left arm and grabbed the bag that Luca had just finished packing for her, off the counter. Her movement triggered a little groan of discomfort from the boy.

"Watari said to put it on his tab." She whispered so to not disturb the sleeping baby any further, "He'll pay when he comes for groceries next week."

The woman just smiled and waved her off, "Don't worry about it. I've got it done already."

Luculia slid the shopping bag down her forearm, letting it rest in the crook of her elbow and saluted her goodbye.

Exiting the grocery store and waving Mario goodbye, she felt groggy movement in her arms.

She looked down at the form resting in her arms as he tiredly turned his head up to see what was going on.

"Are you okay?" she asked tiredly, still iffy but alright. The poor child was in a similar state but simply amplified a few times.

He dragged his gaze upwards to the girl, his flames and instincts determined that she wasn't a threat. He groaned in affirmation to her enquiry before he returned his head into her chest and began to doze off again, blatantly basking in her flames that wrapped securely around his body like a protective blanket.

His star was pulsing steadily which relieved the young girl. It was still dimmed down though but she intended on working on that later on for Verde as well.

Lu quickly got home, keeping a steady blanket of comfort over her new found companion.

As the door to the elevator opened up, revealing her home, her two roommates sent her questioning glances as she chucked her shoes onto their respective places on the shoe rack.

Verde looked amused as Lu walked over to the counter and dropped the shopping bag onto the table.

"I thought you went to get milk and Capri Sun, not another roommate, brat."

Lu looked at him with a tired deadpan look "It wasn't my fault I swear!"

Verde wasn't convinced, "So, what did you do?"

She pouted and looked down at the sleeping boy. "I bumped into him and knocked him over in the middle of the street," She explained quietly, "His star was falling too and-"

"And you decided to try and catch it with your own flames by tugging it towards you and subsequently offering a slap in the face of sky attraction?" Verde completed.

The girl in question puffed out her cheeks, "Maybe… but like it was instinctual! He was falling and I just like felt like I needed to like make sure he wasn't hurt, y'know?"

Verde sighed, "At least it wasn't Reborn that you picked off the streets of Italy. I have no doubt you'll do it eventually but Fon is the least irritating of the lot."

Watari chuckled, "I'm somewhat impressed, little flower. You've somehow managed to harmonize with the storm arcobaleno, whom is **Chinese** unlike the Italian majority of the arcobaleno. I would have guessed you would have kidnapped the Rain if anything."

Lu sighed and turned on her heel to plonk her back onto the couch.

After getting comfy, she turned onto her side and stuffed one of the throw pillows under her head to support her neck.

She tucked her storm into her neck, she started to doze off when a blanket fluttered over her body as Watari and Verde walked past her to make themselves comfortable on the other couch.

Lu half-heartedly listened to their muffled conversion as she dozes off to sleep.

"I'm massively impressed that out of all the elements in Italy, she managed to find let alone harmonize with Fon of all people on her way to the grocer looking for drinks at 8am in the morning. Funny as fuck."

Groaning in protest, Lu grabbed a throw pillow off the floor and tiredly chucked it at Verde before rolling over to face the back of the couch, keeping Fon comfortably against her neck.

He was like her own personal heat pack. Not as warm as Watari but perfectly sized for cuddling.

Verde caught the pillow and chucked it to the side. Watari caught the said pillow and threw it back at him, landing perfectly and slamming into the back of his head. Verde scowled at him, amusement was dancing in Watari's eyes, "Language, Verde." He scolded lightly.

He rolled his eyes at the old man, "We agreed that everything under this roof with regards to flames is for science and won't leave this building correct?"

Watari eyed him knowingly and chuckled in amusement, "I will not judge you for feeling jealous of the storm arcobaleno for being able to cuddle with the little lady"

Verde flushed, "I was not jealous!"

Watari just chuckled some more.

* * *

As time went by, both the resident sun and lighting returned to their offices to continue doing their respective work as their sky napped away with the storm.

Out of the two, Fon was the first to wake up.

Slowly moving out of Lu's arms as not to disturb her, he hopped off the couch and examined his surroundings.

He honestly had near to no knowledge of where he was other than the fact that his new little sky brought him here. It wasn't every day that he harmonized with someone, especially in such strange circumstances.

Creating a bond with Luce was not nearly as endearing as bonding with the little sky.

Luce had her own guardians already and she was going to betray them, it wasn't nearly as welcoming in the slightest due to her lingering guilt and their bond lacked much of the genuine care that a sky showed for a primary. He only realised this once he had something to compare the experience off.

Bonding with his little sky was like a breath of fresh air, a welcome home. He assumed that he was her first ever storm because of how violent of a reaction they both were experiencing.

It was so warm and comforting and just an overall nice feeling so much that he got borderline drunk off harmonization. Even now, hours later, her flames still lingered around his form whilst she was unconscious.

"Good morning, young man. I sure hope you had a good rest." An aged voice spoke from across the room.

Fon smiled serenely and sighed, "Yes, I feel much better. I can't say that I was expecting such a sudden bond."

Watari chuckled, "Her flames are very pure and unique, a part of that may have been due to a bloodline, however."

Fon hummed in curiosity.

The old man gave him a stern look, "In this household we respect privacy and anything we say should not leave, I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the consequences."

Fon nodded in understanding. He wasn't one to mess with flame bonds, he would not betray his sky.

Verde chose that moment to walk out of the corridor and into the kitchen to join them

"The little lady has Vongola blood flowing in her veins, my boy.", Fon's eyes widened slightly before he pursed into a frown.

"That may be detrimental in the future should someone find that out."

Verde nodded in agreement, smoothly sliding himself into the conversation, "Nono still has his 3 brats to fill his chair so unless something drastic happens it should be fine."

Blankets rustling followed by a loud groan echoed through the room. The three guardians looked at the source to see their sky stretching her arms out before plonking herself back onto the couch and burying herself in the blanket.

"It's almost lunchtime brat, don't go back to sleep.", Verde yelled across to the girl.

Lu dragged her body into a half push-up position before sitting up and rustling her hair. "Yessir", she replied drowsily.

"Go wash your hands, little flower, it will be ready when you return," Watari suggested.

More awake now, she nodded and rolled herself off the couch.

Pulling out four plates from the drawer, Watari served the food up. "Feel free to eat where you like," he told Fon "The little lady usually eats at the bar because we don't have a main dining table set up"

As if on cue, Lu slid into the kitchen much more awake than before reaching to grab a plate, her eyes twinkled at the drool-worthy food.

"Can I eat with you?" Fon asked suddenly.

Her attention was successfully caught and Lu tilted her head at him instinctively before smiling brightly, "Sure!"

She grabbed two plates of food, told Watari her thanks, in which he just smiled at and walked to the bar. "Over here! It's a little easier to eat from an actually table-ish thing"

"Smart word choosing brat," Verde said snarkily as he grabbed his own plate and followed her to the bar.

Lu peaked her head around the corner, back at him, "Hush, you."

Verde just smirked in amusement.

Fon chuckled at their antics and followed Verde to the bar.

Lu walked to the bartender's side of the bar and placed both her and Fon's plates down before reaching down to take Verde's plate as he walked past and placed it next to theirs.

He nodded in appreciation to which Lu smiled in return.

Both Verde and Fon sat themselves down on the bar seats and Lu turned to face Fon, realisation apparent on the girl's face.

"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. It's nice to meet you, I'm Luculia, Watari is the one in the kitchen and I assume you know Verde already." she said as she reached to grab a can that looked something akin to beer. She smiled far too innocently for the current situation.

Both arcobaleno eyed the can suspiciously.

"Ah... its a pleasure to meet you as well, my name is Fon", He replied half hesitantly, his attention still on the well-known-to-be-harmful-to-children drink.

Lu nodded happily, completely disregarding their suspicious looks.

"Must I remind you that you're 7, brat? Please tell me you aren't actually planning on drinking that and/or serving it to us"

"Of course, I'm going to drink it" She scoffed, "but! I'm going to water it down lemonade and make shandy. So, I'm pretty sure it's okay."

Fon sweat dropped and Verde eyed her in disbelief.

"Really?" he deadpanned.

She pouted at their scepticism, "Yeah why not? At least I'm not drinking like whisky or something right?"

Verde sighed in fond exasperation, "Can I have some lemonade while you're at it then?"

A cheeky grin spread across her face when Verde accepted defeat, "Sure! Fon do you want some too?"

Fon smiled serenely, "Ah, water please if that's alright"

"No problemo~"

Lu placed their drinks in front of them and placed her own near here plate

Watari, having finished cleaning up, walked to the bar to join them. He eyed their selection of drinks as he walked closer. That girl…

Having overheard their lovely conversation concerning alcohol, Watari walked past the arcobaleno and swiped Lu's shandy from next to her plate, took a sip and placed it on the other side of his plate, furthest from Lu and the arcobaleno.

Lu pouted at him, clearly unhappy with his actions. "No alcohol until you're 18, alright?"

"Okay Watari", she puffed her cheeks completely resigned to listening to the old man.

Verde outright smirked in her face and Fon turned his head to the side to try and hide his smile.

Pouting Lu poured herself some apple juice and hopped over to the other side of the bar to eat with them.

* * *

"So, what brings you to Italy, Fon?" Verde asked, "If the brat was going to kidnap an arcobaleno off the side of the streets of Sicily, at 8 am in the morning looking for milk, I would have thought it would have been Reborn."

She huffed and rolled her eyes at him.

"I had a contract that required me to be here," He informed the group, "I had just finished the contract when I was moving back to my residence before I bumped into young Luculia"

"and what did you feel when you bumped into her?" Verde prodded.

Fon gave him an odd look and Verde took that as a cue to clarify. "For research purposes, of course, to see if there is any difference in harmonisation effects between people or flames."

"Ah, I see"

Lu and Watari listened in on the conversation with interest.

"It was like a breath of fresh air, it felt as if I had just returned home after a few-years long contract. It felt like home, extremely comforting and that I just wanted to stay there forever."

Verde looked contemplative.

"I assume you both have harmonized with Luculia, may I know how your experiences were?" Fon asked. Since Verde had the audacity to ask him for information, Fon assumed that the boundaries in terms of research were much looser within the building and between guardians.

As Verde began to talk, it was clear that he assumed correctly.

"I rejected harmonizing with the brat at first, the sky attraction was so distracting and influencing when I was rejecting it. She didn't seem to notice the harmonization when I did it with her. I accepted the harmonization quite a long time after I met her, however, she did not experience any of the drowsy effects that happened with you. I also felt that same sense of home with her flames, often her flames would actually coax me out of my office for dinner. It was quite the endearing feeling, to be completely honest." The scientist hummed in amusement, thinking back.

"I-I did what now?" The three men turned towards the girl in question, her face flushed.

Watari petted her head as she stuffed her face with pasta so to distract herself from her embarrassment, "Don't be embarrassed, little flower. According to records, it's not uncommon for strong skies to care for their elements strongly."

"I know, but still..." she murmured under her breath, blush still lightly littering her face. It was _Verde._ It was their tradition to bond through arguing and teasing rather than this cheesy stuff, it was so mortifying.

Fon smiled at her, "It's comforting, having a sky. It's nothing to be ashamed of." Verde nodded in agreement, "Don't overthink it brat."

She quickly stuffed the rest of her meal into her stomach and chugging her drink, Lu hopped off her chair and escaped to the kitchen to clear her dishes.

"Thanks for the food!" she called as she turned the corner. She really just wanted to get out of there. As much as she welcomed the friendliness, it was all too foreign to her. Her mother and Lady Chiyo never did that often if at all.

Three pairs of eyes trailed her form as she left.

Fon looked worried but Watari gave him a comforting pat on the head as he walked past him to clear his own dishes.

"Don't worry about it, she's not used to having so much affection thrown her way. Actually, she would unlikely be against me telling you stories given that she probably wouldn't want to tell you herself. I can explain further after you finish your meal."

"Ah.. " Fon replied in understanding.

Quickly finishing up his meal, Fon jumped off his chair with his plate to follow the old man, Verde trailing along shortly after.

After passing his dishes to Watari, Verde turned to return to his office. Fon's eyes were still lingering on the corner in which the young sky disappeared behind.

"She's probably hiding in Watari's office, tinkering with her barriers" he informed the storm as he walked away.

Fon glanced at his fellow arcobaleno briefly and nodded slightly in appreciation.

Watari gestured Fon to follow him to the couches, the ones in the same area that Lu had been sleeping in.

Watari swept the blanket up and folded it up with grace, before sitting himself down and petting the couch for Fon.

"The little lady was born a child of a prostitute," He chose to begin with, "the brothel owner was an acquaintance I owed a favour to. Her mother tried to kill her and her flames erupted due to the stress of the situation, likely as a defence mechanism." Fon's eyes showed signs of shock, his mouth turned to a frown for a few moments before flattening out into his standard neutral expression.

He was almost too comfortable within this household than he should've been, he noticed. He was all of a sudden in good terms with Verde and showing a lot more emotion to these people whom should have been treated as strangers. They shouldn't have surpassed the 'acquaintance' threshold with him let alone be considered family to him.

He sucked all his thoughts up to focus his attention on the information being provided to him when Watari continued.

"The owner called me up saying the girl had wanted to leave, but her heritage and flames would endanger her. The little lady needed a teacher and I took her in initially with the intent of teaching her self defense and working through basic flame control before letting her go. That clearly didn't go to plan. I harmonized with the little lady when she was still quite young, 5 if I recall correctly. I called Verde in not long after to work on flames. "

Fon nodded in understanding, "I see, a truly unfortunate childhood, I see."

Watari agreed, "However, she's a lot happier now. She's still young and impressionable thus we just need to slowly get her used to having more than a couple of people being kind to her."

Footsteps sounded from the stairwell as Lu jogged into open view from the hallway, "Watari! Someone's coming up! " she spoke in alarm.

Watari's eyes sharpened slightly then he stood up. A ding echoed the room as the elevator arrived, Watari picked up and pocketed the small emergency pistol from the retractable compartment inside the couch's armrest.

The doors slid open. _SQUEAK._

_…_

_'Wait aren't the doors metal? They don't squeak, they're sliding doors!'_

"huh?" was Lu's very intelligent reaction.

She walked closer to the entrance as the doors opened wider revealing... a very familiar Crocodile with a white red-faced monkey and a frog on its head.

A grin broke across her face and she ran to greet them. She kneeled down in front of them, "Keiman! There you are. I was worried about you." The crocodile nosed her knee and another squeak and a ribbit drew her attention to the other animals

"Oh hello there" she spoke as she picked both up into the palms of her hands and raised them to eye level, "Who might you be?"

"Lichi and Fantasma", Fon spoke from behind her causing her to turn her head to face him for a moment before looking at the pair in her palms, "My partner and Viper's respectively."

She tilted her head slightly, "Viper?"

Out of nowhere, a baby levitating in the air appeared to her right, "Muu, that would be me".

Verde sighed as he walked into the main area, "You sure took your time"

Viper turned to face the offender, "This was not an easy place to find, your crocodile easier to find than you lot as a whole. I'll have to charge you extra for the effort."

Lu giggled feeling a little bad, "Sorry."

The lightning glared at the newcomer half-heartedly.

A Viper turned his attention to her to demand payment before his movement suddenly stuttered and he slipped his focus. At times like this, Fantasma would have been able to hold Viper up and aid him in levitation but the small frog was currently happily occupying the young sky's hand.

His form began to fall to the ground, everyone's eyes following in bewilderment and shock

Lu slid both the small animals onto the floor beside her and dove to catch the falling baby, gracefully rolling back upright in a half kneel.

"Safe~!"

Everyone in the room let out a simultaneous breath that they didn't know they were holding in.

Viper just stared at her from his position in her arms and she just smiled back at him, standing up straight. Damn… why didn't he notice the freaking active sky in the room when he first arrived? Her flames were so potent he almost wanted to punch himself for not noticing.

Now, he was stuck with a sky that he didn't even know was trustworthy or not.

Verde broke the silence.

"Oh hell no."

Watari chuckled, "I think the little lady has done it again"

Fon nodded solemnly, "Viper's never lost so much focus in the middle of battle let alone in a safe house."

Viper let out a slightly aggravated sigh before gently pushing out of the 7-year-old's arms and floating to eye level with her.

"If you don't toy with my flames again, you don't have to pay."

Lu just let out a very intelligent "huh?" as the mist floated over to the technically-adults squad.

She paused for a moment before she joined them on the couches momentarily with a trio of not so innocent animal partners trailing behind her.

An awkward air hovered around the group.

Watari cleared his throat, attempting to clear the awkwardness, "You never fail to surprise me little lady"

Lu's face flushed, "I don't mean to do it Watari! I'm sorry!"

He chuckled, "It's not a bad thing at all, all the more people to aid you the better." It was obvious to Verde that Watari was thinking 'protect' but he would never voice that thought out. Lu would be probably highly offended as a fighter in training.

Verde eyed Lu sceptically, "Are you _sure_ you don't mean to do it?"

Lu waved her hands in front of her frantically, "Of course!"

"Then why did you ask me to help you with your "barrier with _real illusions_" project in our deal that clearly indicated that you wanted me to use my connections with the strongest illusionist then hmm?"

"I-I-I didn't realise it had _those_ implications! I just wanted you to help use then hardening properties of your flames."

Viper deadpanned at Verde and Verde sent the same look to his sky.

"You're telling me, I used one of my favours, a huge chunk of cash and a significant chunk of my tolerance (Viper: "Oi-" ) to help you with your project when you didn't even think that far yourself?"

Lu nervously laughed, "ahahaha... yes?"

Verde smacked her upside the head, "Brat."

Fon chuckled, "Maa~ the more the merrier I'd say"

Watari nodded in agreement, "Indeed, Indeed. We have plenty of space of course."

"O-oi!" Viper exclaimed in protest, "Who said I was staying?!"

Everyone turned to face him, "Eh? You're not staying?" Lu asked.

She had only just realised that whoever joined them might not stay at all, she felt somewhat foolish and selfish for thinking that in the first place.

"Are you leaving too Fon?"

Fon smiled sadly, "I will have to return to Mafia Land to complete my contract and I am still currently stuck with the Triads"

Lu tilted her head in a silent question. "I do not agree with their ways" Fon continued, "My niece, Mei, bore a child with a Japanese man 4 years ago. I am currently discussing their escape with the father, however, for now, I will have to bear with staying put for their sake."

Lu frowned, "Do you intend on sending them to Japan?"

Fon nodded, "We have decided on such, yes, however, we have yet to secure a safe location."

Lu hummed in consideration. She spun her head suddenly towards Watari causing him to raise an eyebrow at her actions. He knew that glint in her eye would only lead to trouble.

"If I am thinking what you are hoping to propose, I do hope you know what you are getting yourself into."

Lu pouted, "We have space for plenty more people like you said!" she reasoned, "Surely two more can't hurt, plus she's a mom so she can help cook too!"

Fon's eyes widened as he realised where the conversation was going. He didn't even care that he was letting his emotions loose as hope bubbled in his chest.

"Finish your barrier technique first, then we can look into kidnapping a woman and child from the triads. One thing at a time brat, I need a break between additions to the dysfunctional famiglia. Two is barely acceptable within a week, four is pushing it." Verde cut in.

"As for if Viper is staying, yes he is." Verde continued, Viper squawked in protest. "At the least until your technique is at a good level."

Viper sighed and nodded. "This sky attraction is going to be a pain in my backside" he muttered under his breath.

Verde smirked at his suffering and shrugged, "Hey, I paid you."

The mist glared at him.

"Okay!" Lu clapped, gathering attention. "We work super hard to finish the barrier technique ASAP, then we kidnap a woman and child from the Chinese mafia!"

"Muu, it sounds a lot worse when you say it like that."


	7. Family Travel Experiences

**A/N: I intend on changing the rating to M, the further we go along in the story. As of right now, the only warnings I have would be for swearing but it will get significantly darker as we progress through Luculia's life but have no fear, it won't get to that point until several chapters into the story.**

**I will put warnings on the individual chapters that require more warnings outside of just swearing and, of course, spoilers. This ****_is_**** a fanfiction after all.**

**If you have any questions regarding anything from plot holes I might accidentally leave open to suggestions for omake's feel free to leave me a review or a pm. I do have a filler/omake section lined up for after the story goes into the depths of darkness and back out.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy~**

**Enquiry answers:**

**Q: Does Tsuna exist in this**** world? (- _Vivi Neferatari)_**

**A: Yes! Tsuna exists in this world, however, he won't be introduced for quite awhile. Right now we are several years before Canon actually begins. I can make a more precise timeline if requested but as a rough one, for now, Tsuna would be about 4-years-old at the current moment.**

**_(I've had this written already for awhile but I resolved myself to finish my discrete mathematics assignment first - much soz)_**

* * *

A few weeks had passed, Fon had already left for Mafia land by this time and the other residents of the household worked hard on Lu's technique in the training room.

"Like this?"

"Muu... nope"

"How bout this?" The mist stuck a hand through the translucent wall in front of him.

"Almost, it feels more like jelly. Make it more obstructive."

Lu tried again. "Any better?"

"A little. If it's difficult, try imagine something more solid than what you intend it to be."

"hmm alright..."

The 150th or so wall momentarily appeared in front of the two, her lighting and sun had long returned back to their offices leaving the pair to train alone together.

Viper reached a small hand out to feel the wall and nodded in satisfaction.

"Now this can be considered a wall, a little flimsy but still progress. It's definitely a good start to your barriers. I assume you're wanting this barrier to be nearly impenetrable if possible?" Lu nodded, "I want it to be as strong as possible."

"Muu... The strongest of barriers will always be made by lightings, that is in comparison to the amount of effort placed in. You can make strong barriers with mist flames but it will be a lot more difficult to achieve than it is for lightnings." Lu nodded again with understanding and determination flaring in her eyes.

Viper cleared his throat, "Considering how you wish to kidnap Fon's niece and grandnephew from the triads asap, I would suggest you borrow some lighting flames to reinforce the strength of your barriers temporarily so we can progress further in our own time."

That sounded perfect to her, the sooner they could go rescue them, the better.

Lu clapped, "Sounds like a plan! What's next on the agenda?"

"More walls" Viper deadpanned

"Oh"

"Yeah, 'Oh' is right. Now move on before I charge you for wasting time."

The walls were slowly progressing from walls to walls to finally a step up, a wall box.

You may be asking, what on earth is a wall box.

Well, it's like a shield prison thing, like a box made of walls that's intended use it so trap others or isolate threats such as explosions.

Viper thought that it would be a good place to begin as an in-and-out mission such as this rescue mission would go plenty more smooth if the girl could just block off oncoming chasers. It would also be a good mechanism for air combat.

He floated up into the air once more before dropping his almost non-existent weight of 4kg onto the box's floor. If it couldn't hold his weight, it wouldn't stop anything.

In the midst of the weight training, Lu felt Watari's sun flames wrap gently around her waist, coaxing her towards the doors.

"Another one..." Viper droned on for the millionth time before Lu stood up, picking up Viper as she rose.

"Muu, where are we going?" Viper asked, noticeably tired and bored, not resisting her hold at all.

Lu stretched her back and one arm out letting out a nice groan or relief, "Watari called for dinner" she informed her new-ish mist.

Viper made a noise in question. "His flames told me."

Viper never doubted the odd nature or uses of flames so he just accepted it and grunted in acceptance.

The dysfunctional family, minus Fon (whom had already left) gathered around the kitchen to grab their meals. Small plates were also sitting on the kitchen bench for the animal partners that were present.

"Verde, do you have a way of storing flames?" Lu asked as the group walked towards the bar per standard routine.

Verde raised an eyebrow at her, "You'd be better off asking Watari, brat. That's his current project, not mine."

Lu turned Watari the question clearly implied, "I do have a way little lady but it has yet to be optimised. I will run the project through Verde before you can use it though. What is the purpose of your question?"

"She wishes to grab Fon's wards as soon as possible. I suggested borrowing lighting flames temporarily for the mission. " Viper answered in her stead, "It has been almost four weeks since we started on this and at the rate we are going now, it would take at least another two. "

"Ahh" Watari replied. "You should continue in your training. I will refer my progress to Verde tonight. "

"It will be optimised as soon as possible" her lighting spoke up, "at the very latest, the end of the week. You should have made decent progress by then and we will contact Fon once you know how to manipulate my flames. "

Lu nodded, determined to succeed, her eyes shining a slight orange.

* * *

_Ring, ring, ring!_

_click._

"Who is this?"

"Ah! Fon, hi!"

"Ah, hello Luculia. How are you this morning?"

On Lu's side of the phone, there were three others present that were not-so-discreetly eavesdropping.

"Is he really not going to ask how she got that number in the first place?" Verde questioned.

"Unlikely" Watari replied, "Viper is known as a very good informant, its reasonable that he makes that assumption"

"I'm great!" She replied with clear enthusiasm.

"That's good to hear. Is the reason for your call because you have completed your technique?"

"Mn!" she confirmed, "Viper and I worked super hard on it too! We were wondering where about we should meet you?"

"Namimori, Japan. I'm on my way there. Mei's husband is situated there as well, and we will discuss further."

"Okay~"

Watari had already pulled out his phone begun booking flights when she glanced back at him. "We'll be there tomorrow evening?"

Watari tilted his head slightly, giving her the affirmative. "Yeah, tomorrow evening." She relayed to the storm.

"I'll see you then, have a safe flight."

The tone went flat, and Lu put the phone down.

"Time to get packing," Watari announced with a delightful smile on his face, "our weapons are being transported over to Fon right now. We are taking public transport."

Verde and Viper looked slightly flabbergasted "What, why?"

"For the experience" Watari shrugged and chuckled, "it'll be fun"

The arcobaleno groaned, "'Fun' my ass" Verde snarked back.

Lu smiled innocently, "You must have a very entertaining ass, Verde."

The three men gave her slightly disturbed looks, Watari sighed, exasperated. Oh, the glory of innocence.

"I'll pay you to never say that again, Hime."

* * *

"May I have your passport please?" The nice looking lady requested.

Lu smiled brightly at her as Watari handed over the four passports over. Mammon sat comfortably on her head whilst Verde took the chance to bask in the comfort of his sky's flames and take a small nap.

The staff on shift, both guys and gals, were fangirling to the max.

_'Awww they're so cute, she's taking such good care of her little brothers for her grandfather!'_

_'__What a good girl she is! The children are so well behaved.'_

Obviously hearing this, Lu giggled and Viper muu'd in protest. He had decades on the girl, only to be recognised as her little brother, how sad.

"Thank you very much," The lady said, "Please make your way to gate 13 for your flight to Namimori Japan. Have a safe trip!"

Watari nodded thanks to the lady and picked up the two bags by his feet. "Lead the way, little lady"

Mock saluting him, keeping a firm yet gentle hold of Verde and Viper with her flames. "Yessir!"

Watari chuckled, it was like a family trip, adorable really.

The wait for boarding was slightly longer than anticipated, there was some sort of a delay occurring.

Lu felt Viper's flames start to waver slightly, Lu picked him from her head and held him against her neck whilst Verde napped against her opposite shoulder. Viper just took advantage of the over comforting nature of his sky and welcomed likely the best nap he's had to date.

He nodded absentmindedly in thanks and allowed himself to doze off in the safety of his sky's firm hold.

Lu slowed her pace to walk alongside Watari. He glanced over the state of his fellow elements in amusement, adults in spirit they may be, yet children physically and mentally in the hold of their sky.

The gate call began a long while later and the noise racked up to a disturbing level. The two in her arms shifted uncomfortably. Lu frowned, unhappy that she couldn't do anything to help them. Watari, noticing this, petted her on the head before standing up and gesturing her to do the same.

"Come now, we have premium seating as well as children, so we get to board first. " Lu nodded as she stood up to follow her Sun. Lu reached her flames out to comfort their distressed flames as they walked into the plane, away from the crowd, lulling them back to sleep, their stars settling to a comfortable state of hibernation.

Watari smiled at the trio. "Window seat little lady?"

"Yes please," she whispered back, getting the two in her arms comfortable. She shuffled over to her seat and buckled herself in. They were in for a long flight.

As they reached the optimum height, the seatbelt sign turned off. Verde decided to take that moment to wake up, slightly groggy and rubbing his eyes, he asked for his glasses.

Watari picked them up gently off the side table and slipped it to him to which he nodded in thanks, still trying to shake the sleepiness out of his system.

"Good morning, sunshine" Lu said with a teasing tone. Verde half glared at her, visibly still exhausted, from his position on her left thigh and half-heartedly pointed at Watari, "I believe your sun is over there, brat".

Lu giggled, "Smooth"

Before the group had actually left the house, Verde had offered to pay for his own flight as a _responsible adult _he told his sky. This ended up causing Viper to begrudgingly offer as well so to not look like an asshole as much as he didn't want to waste money on it, he didn't want to make a bad impression on his new fellow elements nor his sky.

To their surprise though (and Viper's absolute delight), they were informed that their flights were actually free as the airline didn't charge for lap babies aged two or under. Whilst they were somewhat offended by the 'lap babies' part, the fact that they got a free flight was a good enough reason for them to brush it off.

The premium first-class portion of the aircraft, where the quartet was currently situated, was in a 2-2 formation. Two seats on the left, two on the right to provide optimum comfort for high paying customers. They were positioned on the second row from the front of the total of 4 rows of guests.

There was a woman and her son who looked to be slightly older than Lu sitting to the right of Watari, directly across the aisle.

Her son looked uncomfortable whilst the woman kept sending the young trio dirty looks over Watari and his newspaper.

_'That lady is dangerous...' _The voice warned. Lu fully agreed with it, that lady is scary.

This made all four of them obviously uncomfortable. Lu could feel the discomfort vibrating through their flames and she tried her best to comfort them despite her own discomfort.

The adorable attempts and spiritually hugging all of them at the same time were adorable and the three almost forgot about the woman for a split moment.

Verde, however, found the woman oddly familiar. She was an active storm to his absolute irritation, annoying storms were the worst.

He was pulled from his thoughts when the young sky pulled him closer to her for comfort. Viper woke up grumpy and visibly annoyed due to the predatory looks jabbing his instincts, he wanted nothing but to send her into a never-ending nightmare or burn her to ashes, either would work to be honest.

Out of the corner of her eye but not straight up looking at the woman, Lu saw the hag's face scrunch up in anger. The woman somehow noticed that she had been peeking looks at the older woman and reached up to jab violently at the alert attendant button.

She was tapping her foot on the carpet of the aircraft and her long fingernails on the armrest as she waited. The young, asian-looking female attendant that Lu recognised from having greeted her when she entered the plane arrived to tend to the woman's needs.

"Hello, how can I help you?" she said politely with a slight bow in her posture.

"Ah yes." the woman replied sharply as she pointed a rude finger towards Lu, "Those children over there were bothering me. I paid good money for this seat to have a comfortable flight. I demand that they are sent back to economy. I did not pay extra to have to fly with these babies."

Watari closed his newspaper and frowned at the woman, Lu gaped at her in disbelief. Like, really? What a mean move.

Verde was visibly fuming, and Viper was clearly irritated, his anger, however, was better concealed.

The poor flight attendant clearly looked uncomfortable, Lu felt so bad for her.

The scary woman's flames suddenly flared dangerously, an intimidation tactic that worked very effectively on the young and sensitive sky.

Lu flinched, visibly uncomfortable herself, her hands were fidgety, toying at the hem of her shirt. Her flames were also going haywire, trying to barrier her away from the danger but she was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice.

A thin layer of yellow coated blue slid over her flames, lightly coaxing its sky back to the safety of her star. She felt instantly calmer and released a quiet breath, her flames relaxing simultaneously at the familiar flame.

The woman from across the aisle was clearly still irritated but now was visibly intrigued by the presence of the young sky. An almost evil intent was felt by any and all onlookers when the corner of her lips stretched an abnormal amount into a smirk.

An active storm, she was. The girl had no present storm guardian too. Oh, how easy it would be to just slip into the harmony of the immature sky. She reached out a flare of storm flames at the rain-sun coating with the aim of breaking it down.

The woman flinched back when another sky suddenly slapped her storm away with what could be described as a slap on the wrist. Lu's guardians were thankful to the unknown sky for warding the woman off, not that she would have been able to touch her anyway. Whilst the arcobaleno pair would have been able to swat the woman's flames away easily, it was much more difficult to do so within a commercial aircraft without risking damaging something.

"None of mine have made a noise above a whisper since this flight took off," Watari stated loudly with a frown apparent on his face and an air of authority hovering around him, the storm's attention was successfully caught and dragged towards him. "Whilst you are making false claims, do note that I as well have paid equally as much money as you have for a comfortable flight with my family, that, in which you have now disturbed."

The woman's face began to darken in fury and embarrassment, her mouth opening to snap back at the elderly man. Lu tightened her hold on the two in her lap instinctively causing both to look up at her. Verde stayed silent but patted her knee in comfort.

"I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding." The flight attendant tried, "perhaps you may have overheard a child from economy."

The woman huffed, "I did no such thing! This man is clearly only trying to save his own hide from the truth." she hissed out, her flames flaring in rage, advertising her terrible control. To think this imbecile had the audacity to try and trigger a bond with their sky.

"Watari... " Lu whimpered, pulling her to the attention of her guardians. Light hints of pink started to appear on the skin of her open forearms. _Burn marks,_ her lightning hissed. Verde fed his own flames into the rain coating her skin to create a barrier effect. Whilst Lu knew how to create physical barriers, her prowess was far from achieving flame protection.

"There have been no disturbing noises in the duration of this flight until this argument arose" noted a female voice from the seat directly in front of Watari. The girl speaking poked her head out into the aisle, gave Verde and Viper a cheeky smile and Lu a comforting one before turning back to the flight attendant. "I do not believe there is anything bothering occurring in this cabin, we are quite alright here, thank you miss".

Verde and Viper openly gaped at the green haired teen causing Lu to give them questioning looks and Watari to chuckle, lightening the heavy mood instantaneously.

"Indeed" he confirmed, tilting his head slightly to dismiss the girl. The flight attendant nodded and dipped her head in respect before leaving. The accusing woman glared at Watari and the green-haired teen before angrily crossing her arms in a fit. "This is ridiculous!" she complained to the blond boy next to her, throwing her back roughly against her seat, "We should be getting better service than this for my money, right Shuan~?"

The boy looked visibly uncomfortable and unimpressed with the woman's singsong tone alongside her actions. He frowned, "They didn't do anything wro-" he was cut off by a loud slap across his face. "Wrong answer!" she hissed. The boy's face turned grim in resignation and he turned to look out the window, leaning his chin on one hand, the other holding his bruised face.

Everyone in the first-class cabin sent her frowns and disapproving looks. Lu trembled in fury, she was horrified at the woman's treatment of the boy. Lu knew better than anyone what a life without a decent mother was like and boy, was she furious.

She wasn't about to let the boy get stomped all over as she did.

Her flames were always good for comforting her family, she could help them calm down and help them sleep. Maybe she could comfort him too?

When Lu sent her flames out to the blond boy, Shuan she recalled, both arcobaleno and Watari felt some of her flames moving away from them and sent her a worried look. They almost wanted to demand the girl to retract her harmony, but they knew that she didn't have the heart to not _try_.

Shaun's flames weren't very accepting of the interaction. They pulled away and tried to shoo her away. Her flames attempted to coax him out of his bubble, trying to tell him that it was okay and that she wasn't going to hurt him.

The woman fumed silently after being sent the evil eyes by their surrounding passengers. She flared her storm dangerously to ward the young sky off. A bad move to do, especially on a commercial plane. Her storm caused a sudden burst of violet turbulence making Luculia flinch and pull her flames back to hold her family safe.

The hag stopped her flames once she retracted and sent the girl a smug look. Viper watched as Verde bristled in anger. It was almost amusing, Verde was acting like a protective cat.

The boy, being a flame active himself, witnessed the whole exchange. Whilst he was sceptical before, he hesitantly started to accept and appreciate the younger girl's efforts. The blonde wasn't one to just wait for a rescue, if he was going to get out, _he _was going to _get out._

Just as he was about to slip wisps of flames past the raging storm that sat beside him, he felt a predatory gaze on him that sent a shiver down spine. Something lodged in the back of his throat, oh God he hoped that it wasn't the woman.

Slowly and discretely, he turned his eyes to check on the woman, she didn't even glance at him. It was… the baby? That hooded, kid didn't feel like a baby at all.

Viper frowned at the blonde, sending waves of 'don't you freaking dare do it' looks at him. Verde had it worse than him with his flames having the characteristics to potentially mess up the motor circuits and send them flying to their deaths but mists still had it bad. Viper could see that the boy had mist flames from a mile away, it was clearly within an illusionist's job description to be able to detect and break other illusionists. He wasn't about to let this child cast unruly potent mist flames within the aircraft and potentially mess up navigations or worse, create _real illusions_ and cause chaos among the passengers.

The boy silently sighed and resigned himself to wait it out. Not that he had to wait long at all because as soon as the woman opened a magazine, Lu flat out shot a rope, _a rope_, of sky flames right past the woman and poked his star in the side causing him to jump in shock and wince. It was like getting jabbed in the side, you know… like zapped.

Either way, he was relieved and took a moment to just bask in the comfort of a sky. Be it this brash, idiot of a sky that jabbed him in the side to let him in, but still a sky, his sky.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him starting to relax and she smiled to herself, silently clapping at her own achievement. Her older guardians staring at her, some in disbelief, Watari in understanding. Viper just sighed, resigned and Verde's face twisted into a look that shot her a clear "wait really?"

Her comfortable content state was forced out of her system so suddenly she got winded and started finding it hard to breathe. Shuan was panicking, he was downright freaking out and she could feel it.

She doubled over and Watari ran comforting circles on her back. Lu forced her eyes up to see what caused the panic and her eyes widened, her guardians followed her line of sight and grimaced.

The woman had definitely noticed their harmonisation and was, for the lack of better words, _furious._

Her hair shadowed over her eyes, "Now now baby, it's time for your medication okay?" the woman smiled, a terrifying and intimidating smile towards Shuan. He whimpered, terrified enough to forget any form of shame he usually would have felt by making such a weak sound.

She pulled out a syringe full of strange liquid. Exactly how she got that on board a commercial flight was beyond Lu's comprehension. Verde eyed the liquid with disturbed interest, he didn't know what it was, a mixture of chemicals with particles bubbling within it, if anything it looked boiling hot. No medicine would look like that not medicine for a seemingly not fatally wounded child at least.

Shuans flames were flickering in despair, Lu's sky flames were trying to calm it down, but it wasn't working.

The woman roughly pulled his sleeve up above his elbow, prepared to shove the liquid straight up his veins that laid on the inner side of his elbow.

Shaun's eyes were wide in fear, his unimpressed ashamed look was temporarily forgotten in the fear. The needle approached slowly, it got closer and closer and "U-um excuse me?"

Lu had unbuckled her seatbelt, gathered the two on her lap and gently placed them on the chair she had previously occupied at a neck breaking speed.

The needle pulled back a safe distance and was quickly stuffed back into its case as if to hide its existence. The woman turned her head from Shuan to the girl in question, a strained and obviously forced (to her at least) smile on her face, "Yes, what is it, my dear?"

Lu slid past Watari and into the aisle, Watari's arm sitting slightly over the edge of the armrest, ready to pull Lu's form back to safety if necessary.

Having spoken up on a whim to save the boy, Lu made something up on the spot that everyone in attendance mentally applauded her for.

"I couldn't help but overhear that he was taking medicine, I um need to take some as well for my uh plane sickness. The head flight attendant has all the medicine for passengers, do you want to go with me? We can do it together. "

The woman was quick to refuse. "Oh no it's quite alright, I will take him myself. I'm sure he's more comfortable with his mother. "

**_Lie._**

Scared but not stupid, Shuan unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up before his 'mother' ruined all chance of escape. Clearing his throat, he spoke, "I'd appreciate that, thanks." Lu stepped back, closer to Watari to give the boy space to move. The woman's face scrunched up in anger before smoothing out as she moved her body to let her 'son' through, she had no choice in the matter due to the audience they had watching over them.

"Take Viper with you, Lu. He needs to get a drink anyway. Grab it whilst you're up. " Watari demanded lightly, Viper rolled his eyes as she nodded and hopped onto Watari's armrest for easy access.

"I think it's this way," Lu said as she gestured to the front area, scooping her mist up as she walked past. This was the place where they initially entered the aircraft, it was mostly quiet with the pilots' control room down the hall. Shuan nodded and walked forward first, the pair not far behind. They stopped around the corridor between the shelves of food and the pilots operating area

"Ah speaking of medicine, I should go get mine in case my allergies return during meal time. I will be back shortly Gamma" the teen said, smiling at him before following the group of children.

Her lightning spluttered a protest before sighing in defeat and slumping back into his chair.

Verde gave Watari a look and Watari sighed before ushering him along, resulting in a little green head toddling down the aisle to join them.

Watari mentally sighed again. A magnet, he swears. Lu is just a magnet for trouble especially with that over caring and concerned heart. He pulled out his laptop and continued to busy himself until they returned.

* * *

"So" Lu started as the group of three suddenly extended to five. "I'm Luculia, you can call me Lu or whatever nickname you come up with." She smiled warmly at the boy, she's always wanted a friend her age.

She picked Verde up with her other arm to bring him up to a comfortable height to talk and let Viper situate himself comfortably on her head. She bounced Verde in her hold slightly then pointed to the one on her head. "This one is Verde and that one is Viper."

The teen present smiled at the group of youngsters, "I'm Aria. I'm the current sky arcobaleno."

Lu stared at her for a long while before gasping in realisation, "Ohh! that's why you guys gaped at her."

"We do not gape," they both protested, simultaneously.

"Jinx" Viper called in, "You owe me $100"

"...no"

"I'll charge you for disobedience"

The other three bystanders let out a sweat drop.

"Aren't your pacifiers meant to glow when you're near each other?" Lu asked.

Verde had told her about the pacifiers when she asked about it a long time ago. She had always wondered how they linked in with the state of their stars. That was an ongoing personal investigation of hers.

"They do initially for a while" Aria clarified, "I believe they were asleep thus missed it."

Luculia pouted, "I can't believe I missed it and I was awake too!"

Shuan remained silent, standing the furthest away from the group. It was understandable that he was wary, being the newest of the bunch.

Lu wrapped her flames around his own in comfort. Coaxing him forward towards the group but he stayed vigilant.

Lu sent him a sad look. He attempted to remedy it when he suddenly explained himself _in her mind_

_'I prefer to be in the least crowded place possible' __He spoke._

"Oh, that's okay!" Lu replied with a warm smile. Verde sent her another of his weird questioning looks, Aria and Viper observed her curiously. "Brat, who are you talking to?"

"...Shuan?" Verde sent her an unbelieving look.

"Muu... he hasn't spoken a word, Hime" Viper explained to the clueless girl.

"Oh..."

Leaning on the wall of the corridor Shuan took this opportunity to save her from her own predicament, "I spoke to her mind" he clarified.

"A mist?" Aria questioned.

"Cloud"

"Clouds have the ability of propagation though… Are you psychic?" Verde questioned

"Forced" he replied with a grimace. His answers remained short and straight to the point. Honestly, Verde was just happy that he hadn't fallen to monosyllables.

"The liquid then, I presume."

Shuan nodded stiffly. "What famiglia is she from?" Aria asked, curiosity laced in her tone.

"Estraneo. They were looking to transfer me to the Japan facility."

Aria hummed. The Estraneo were doing some dodgy stuff…

She sighed, the poor boy. "We still have at least 10 hours of flight left and we'll need to go back soon, or she'll get suspicious"

Shuan paled significantly.

Aria held a finger up in front of his face to regain his attention, "I'll get Gamma to swap seats with our little sky here, since we're at the front we have a significant amount of leg room to account for the attendants. I'll say that we're now friends and want to hang out together and I'll see if we can borrow one of the attendant's chairs temporarily for you"

"But I'll have to go back for landing or turbulence?"

"There's a chance that there are enough other seats for attendants, or they would be willing to take your original seat but yes, there is the chance you will have to return."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Ch 8 - Lu and the squad land in Namimori momentarily before I ship them off to China. It's almost time to meet little Kyoya!**


	8. Sky Obsession

The flight felt very short to Shuan, the hours flew by quickly as he listened into the conversations of his new 'friends', that is if he could call them that at all, he wasn't so sure just yet.

It was coming to an end and he had only realised it when the same flight attendant from the complaint incident appeared next to him to ask him to return to his seat for the landing. His face paled several shades when he saw the almost murderous look on the Estraneo's face.

"Um… is it possible for him to stay here?" Lu asked, breaking him out of his shock and into the flood of sky flames radiating around the two sky women.

The attendant smiled politely before taking a step back into the aisle, "I will go see if there are enough seats for all the attendants first. I'm afraid that we are not allowed to swap seats with passengers as it's against our rules of conduct."

Aria smiled at the girl kindly, "That would be grand, thank you."

A few moments passed before she returned and informed them with a smile that they had more than enough space for the attendants and that he was free to sit there for the landing if he wished to do so.

The amount of relief that Shuan showed on his face was almost comical, Verde nor Viper even tried to conceal their snorts of amusement.

The Estraneo woman witnessed the exchange and stood up to protest, however, unluckily for her, the head flight attendant happened to walk into the area and _insist_ that the woman returns to her seat as they were about to land.

Aria sent her a smug smirk as the head attendant pulled down the seat next to Shuan and buckled herself up. The middle-aged woman raised an eyebrow at the green-haired teen, "Did you have any issues with your flight, Ma'am?"

Aria's expression flipped a switch and she beamed at the woman, "Oh, no. It was quite grand since our new little friend could sit with us. His "mother" was quite restricting, you see."

The old woman spared the "mother" a brief glance before turning to the boy. Slipping a hand into her pocket, she whipped out a $50 and grabbed one of his hands to place it in. He looked at her incredulously, his eyes showing clear suspicion.

"A congratulations gift." She explained, "Indulge yourself within your freedom."

* * *

As the plane landed, the crowds upon crowds of people exited the plane and entered the terminal. The head flight attendant moved to help the first-class passengers with their bags as soon as the seatbelt sign turned off, subtly giving the young crowd an escape route.

Aria was quick to usher the young sky and cloud-mist out of the plane, Gamma and Watari following closely behind them.

Now the next stage of commercial flights was the bane of all their existences, customs and passport checks.

As international flyers, it was mandatory that they went through all the safety procedures before entering the country. The issue that Lu was currently mulling over was that the Estraneo woman had Shuan's passport.

Viper scoffed and conjured up a fake passport with physical illusions. "Honestly, even you could do this, Hime. The next time you underestimate me, you'll have to pay."

She shot him a sheepish look, "Sorry, Viper."

After they slipped through customs and out of the airport, Lu paused. S̛͜͝͡o̷̸̧̧m͝͞ȩ̡t̷̷̨̛͞h̵̡͘į̡͞n̷̶̵̢̕g̵͢͝'̨̧s̨҉ ̕͘҉͠c̨̨o̴͘͘m͘҉͝i̡͘̕͜͜ņ̨̢͟͏g͢͝.̨̀.̛̕͠.̶̢͞

She frowned, what happened to the voic-

A hand curled around the young sky's mouth and yanked her back, a gasp erupting from the girl's throat. The offender panted out a few breaths, a fully loaded pistol pressed against the girl's temple.

"You lot were such a nuisance, slippery nuisances. Now, since you've taken my perfect mist. I'll just take your sky, I've always wondered what harmonisation felt like. What _forced_ harmonisation felt like. I'll be the grandest storm she's ever had." The woman's face split into an evil grin a cackle sprouting from the back of her throat when a hand suddenly chopped at her wrist. Her face dropped both in terms of expression and physical form as her face hit the ground, the kick causing her to drop the gun and grunt in pain. The attacker didn't stop there, he proceeded to spin kick her off to the side and land on her gut.

Lu just slid down onto her knees and attempted to calm her rapidly beating pulse.

"I'm afraid, you'd be mistaken." He informed her serenely with a dark glint in his eye, "I do not take offences against my sky, nor to my position as her storm."

Sirens were soon heard echoing through the building, the small crowd splitting to allow the authorities through.

An intimidating Asian man wearing a tailored suit stalked forward to the woman, glanced at her briefly before signalling over his shoulder. A squad of discretely armed men responded to his command and apprehended the woman.

Fon gave him an appreciative nod which he responded with a respectful tilt of the head.

The storm made his way over to his sky and slid himself onto her lap, pulling her to look at him. "Are you alright, Lu?"

She smiled shakily at the familiar face, "Yeah, I'm okay." Lu stumbled into a standing position and walked back to her other elements, Aria grabbed the girl by her shoulders and pressed her face into her chest.

"Are you okay, Lulu?! I was so worried!" Lu giggled at the woman. She was so bright and eccentric, Luculia couldn't get enough of her.

Trailing along behind the woman was the arcobaleno animal partners with a new addition, a squirrel that she hadn't seen before.

"I'm okay, Aria." The older sky pulled her back and ran her eyes over her form, checking for injuries which she found none of to her immense relief. She stuck her hands on her hips, "Call me, 'Onee-chan', okay? We're in Japan!"

Gamma sent her an exasperated look from the background, she just waved him off. Lu beamed at the woman, she's always wanted a big family. A big sister was more than welcome.

"Okay, Nee-chan!" Aria beamed back at her. The men surrounding the two skies held hands up to shield their eyes from the blinding sight.

The squirrel parted from his fellow animals and bolted across the floor, scaling up Aria's body and onto her shoulder. Luculia smiled brightly at the creature to which it responded with it's equally as bright smile and a happy squeak.

The older sky smiled softly at the exchange. To be completely honest with herself, Cosmo had never been with her until she decided to go on this trip. She knew from her visions exactly what he intended to do and Aria was fully supportive of his decision. Even if she felt a little jealous that her mother's animal partner hadn't chosen herself to accompany, she didn't mess with fate.

After meeting the young sky for herself, Aria couldn't help but want to protect her too, she wasn't at fault. Her innocence, her smile... she would, at the very least try to protect her.

She would try to change the future that she had seen for the girl with everything she had.

* * *

After they had gathered all their bags and weapons, Fon lead them out of the airport and towards a smaller suburb. Well, he didn't really lead them, honestly, he was more of casually handing out directions whilst getting a free lift in his sky's arms.

Verde was sending him a dirty look from Watari's shoulder, that was _his_ spot. The smile that Fon sent back at the lightning was perfectly serene, sarcastic in the most pleasant of ways. The worst kind of smug.

Aria and Gamma bid the group goodbye when they parted ways at the airport doors but not before Aria slipped Luculia her phone number so they could keep in touch.

A question arose from her when she spotted the innocent looking crocodile and frog re-join the group. She was absolutely positive that they weren't with them before. Watari explained that both Fantasma and Keiman, along with Cosmo that had made himself comfortable on her shoulder, had taken a private jet to their destination, much to their arcobaleno partner's spite she noted, seeing the jealous glares they sent the animal partners. If they had _all _taken that private flight, they wouldn't have to deal with all that chaos.

Luculia glowered at the two making them shiver slightly. "If we didn't take the commercial flight, Shuan would still be with the Estraneo! It's a good thing we didn't go with the private flight."

Watari nodded in agreement, "Indeed it is."

Verde grumbled, "Never again." Viper agreed.

"I'll charge you if you put me through that again." She sent him an innocent look to which he replied with a deadpan, "Yes, even you, Hime."

Lu just pouted, "Aww."

They arrived at a small looking police station that fit in well with the rest of the small town. The glass electronic door slid open for them to enter as they approached it.

The man sitting behind the front desk, directly on their left as they entered, stood and bowed deeply to the storm arcobaleno in respect. "_Fon-sama and guests."_ He greeted,_ "Welcome to Namimori Police Station. How may I assist you this evening?"_

Her storm sent the young officer a pleasant smile, "_Please send for the Chief along with the Squad 1 Lieutenant. I have things to discuss with them."_

_"Of course, one moment please."_ The officer pulled up the landline phone and punched in a few numbers before relaying the request. After a few moments, he placed the landline back down and turned to the group.

_"The Chief and Lieutenant will be here shortly."_ Fon nodded thanks to the man and raised a short arm to point to the open hallway, deeper into the building. "The meeting rooms are over there, there is a waiting room along the hallway."

Lu let out a nervous breath and walked in first. As cute and peaceful the town was outside of the station was, actually being inside and waiting for a meeting was completely nerve-wracking. She was glad that Fon was fully clothed such that he wouldn't be able to feel her slightly sweaty hands.

"Do not be nervous, Lu. They will not harm you, you have multiple elements that are several times more physically capable than any bullet they could throw at you. However, it is unlikely that it would come to that. The police force is aligned to the Law and would never attack or risk losing their jobs or in the Chief's case, his career and reputation."

Whilst that comforted her slightly, she grimaced at the thought of ruining someone's career. She just hoped it would never come to that.

One of the doors, along the opposite wall to their seats, clicked and opened wide. The officer in uniform that opened it, stepped back and held it open for the Asian man that Luculia saw at the airport to walk in.

Was this Fon's nephew-in-law? If so, he was mighty impressive in regards to his posture and air of leadership.

The pair walked out into the hallway and faced them. The Chief spared them a glance before walking down the hallway to the room at the end and entering the said room himself. The other man -who she supposed was the Lieutenant- tilted his head to them in respect, "_Please follow me to the meeting room."_

Fon gave him a nod to which he responded with his own. "Shall we?" He suggested lightly to the sky.

She nodded stiffly and followed the Lieutenant into the room. By the time the entered the room, the chief had already positioned himself at the head of the table. His aura of authority vibrated through the room and sent shivers under her skin.

Everyone else, much to the chief's subtle displeasure, were generally unaffected by his aura. This was due to the fact that they either had a better intimidation tactic (i.e. Watari and Fon) or have dealt with worse bullshit that his BS (i.e. Verde and Viper) or both. They were all pretty sure that they had all dealt with scarier bs than a puny police chief.

This particular police chief, however, had backing in his position of authority. The right to deny Fon's family access into Namimori.

Such a choice would lead to not only his highly likely demise but also for his home town to potentially be partially destroyed during the chaos, the loss of a high ranking and very good lieutenant and the loss of his reputation. That shouldn't matter to him anyway since he'd be dead but a man's pride could take him almost anywhere, even to the depths of hell.

Needless to say, he just seemed like kind of an asshole.

_"Speak your purpose, Lieutenant, Fon."_ He demanded immediately once the door was closed behind Watari.

Fon frowned, _"I believed this was a friendly meeting in regards to my family, Chief. I wish to have protection for my niece and grandnephew within these lands."_

The Chief leaned on his elbows, his chin resting on his laced fingers, _"And what good would their presence bring to this town?"_

The Lieutenant stood strong behind the young sky, placing his hands lightly on her shoulders, _"Sit, for this may be a long meeting."_

Lu nodded owlishly, she felt so out of place being in the middle of the conversation yet not participating. At least the rest of her elements were able to listen from against the walls of the room.

As she sat down, Fon and the other arcobaleno took their positions on the meeting table leaving Shuan and Watari to stay put. The presence of the arcobaleno was more of a protection detail and intimidation factor.

Despite not obviously being part of the mafia, the Chief had sent them suspicious looks instead of the concerned looks that they typically received in serious situations. This implied heavily that the man was at the very least a part of the Japanese Yakuza, not the most ideal side job for the head of police.

Shuan was a new element thus recognised his place and stood to the side of the meeting. Watari was present as a direct guardian of Fon's sky, subsequently explaining Luculia's current predicament at the main table.

The lieutenant took a seat opposite Luculia, _"My wife is prepared to work, she is educated and well trained in the ways of many arts including teaching, managing and culinary arts. My son would ideally be enrolled into his schooling here and his life would progress as it must."_

There was… amusement lingering in the eyes of the chief as he ran his eyes over the lieutenant then to Fon, then to his sky.

Her elements stiffened in alert.

_"I will allow safe residency for your family… On the condition that you give me the position of your sky's lightning."_

Fon turned murderous, the man had clearly never messed with a raging storm before. Luckily for him, it was his chance to experience it. Alongside a violent version of almost every other element.

At that moment, it dawned on Luculia that they weren't the only one's researching into the power of flames. They were just ahead of them, these people already knew of it's power.

**_"No. I refuse."_** To everyone's surprise, Lieutenant Hibari was the one that spoke. _"I will not sacrifice such a position for a young sky. She has a long life ahead of her to discover her own rightful element."_

The Chief looked amused, _"So, you don't want your family to be allowed passage here? Oh… that's just fine for me too. Meeting adjourned, I suppose."_

He stood up and glided out of the room but not before sending the young sky a _wink._ Horror and dread were accumulating within her chest and Shuan verbally hissed at him.

_"_Back off, trash."

The Chief's expression turned incredulous and angry, whilst he didn't know what the boy had said, he knew it was offensive purely through his tone. The man turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.

When his footsteps had gone long silent, Lu stood and stomped angrily. "What a freaking_ paedophile asshole hybrid_! How dare he have the _nerve_ to just say that to me_._ So _rude and creepy!"_

Hibari snorted having only caught the most important Japanese spoken details of her colourful rant before sighing and leaning forward in his head, his head in his hands. _"What am I going to do at this rate?" _He asked no-one in particular, maybe a God of some sort.

A rough cough attracted the attention of everyone present within the room. "_If you would like," _Watari started in a kind tone,_ "your wife and son may stay at our Italian residence for a period of time until you find a way to organise your own home."_

The man stared at him in bewilderment, _"But, why?"_

Lu smiled at him warmly, _"Any family of Fon's is our family too! Plus, I've already promised to kidnap a woman and child from the Triads so I can't go breaking my word now."_

Viper turned to the lieutenant and jabbed a thumb in his sky's direction, _"What she said. I'm getting paid for this, so we're going to complete this rescue whether your lady and kid are going to live with you or in Reborn's apartment's basement. One is significantly better than the other, of course."_

Luculia's eyes shined when he mentioned Reborn, "You know where Reborn lives? We should visit after!"

Verde glowered at her, "Fu-uh-dge no." He faux coughed lightly to cover his near slip-up. Only God knows where his stuff would disappear to if Watari caught him swearing in front of his 'little cute innocent flower'.

_"Thank you, thank you so much. Please take care of my family." _The officer was in near tears, a quality that no one would ever expect to be within such close range of Hibari Kyoya's bloodline. However, he was grateful, so very grateful. His family was going to be safe.

The old man smiled warmly at him, _"It would be my pleasure, my friend."_

* * *

Their flight to China was a private one as heavily insisted by their resident lightning and mist. There was no argument in the case since Watari was personally satisfied with his 'family plane experience' on the exceedingly long trip to Japan already and Lu really didn't care, nor did Shuan.

Shuan made it his personal mission to stay close to Luculia yet the farthest from the largest population of people. He personally hated being trapped and closed off. He owed his life to Giglio Nero's Aria and Luculia and he would endeavour to make sure his sky was safe to the best of his ability.

Viper had spoken with him at one point about working on his powers as a psychic. He initially had no interest in doing such but Watari heavily suggested learning how to control it at the very least. He had to admit having a psychic such as the arcobaleno Viper as a teacher would be ideal, no other teacher would probably top him.

Shuan took a discrete glance at his new sky. Now, he had his own freedom and his own purpose. He would be able to fight for his own goals and not just to please a few scientists for his own survival. He had a chance for his own future now.

The private jet was a decently sized plane designed for a very good level of comfort and protection. Inside the jet was basically a miniature version of their home living room. It was blatantly obvious that Watari owned this jet.

There were couches lining one of the walls, running down the length of the plane, a TV, plugs, lazy boys, _wi-fi, _it was _grand._

As soon as they took a step into the contraption the whole group was in awe. They had left the lieutenant in Namimori by his own request. He explained that he had plans that he needed to achieve as soon as possible and to contact him should they need anything and to update him on the situation if possible.

The most stand-out thing within the plane to the small family was the king-sized bed sitting innocently at the back wall.

Luculia eyed the comfy piece of furniture and glanced over her elements briefly before bolting for the bed calling out, "I call the bed!" claiming the blankets as her own.

After slipping off her shoes, she pulled the duvet back and slid onto the mattress happily making herself comfortable within the sheets. Fon whom had been sitting on her hair at the time leapt off just in time for her head to hit the pillow before crawling into her arms. Yes, he was going to take advantage of this cursed body if he could.

Shuan dropped himself on the couch, shivering slightly due to the air conditioning and his lack of a jacket. He kept eyeing the big bed that the girl was occupying in want, he was honestly so tired from both the earlier commercial flight and the ruckus at the police station, he just wanted to sleep. But Shuan felt like it was out of his place to do so whilst his sky was there, even though they weren't exactly pubescent teens, her other (very powerful) elements likely wouldn't appreciate him getting so close considering he was so new and unfamiliar with them.

He was proven significantly wrong when Viper planted himself on the young blonde's head. "Carry me to the bed, soon-to-be-student." He demanded.

Verde gave the other arcobaleno a stink eye before jumping on his shoulder, "Me too, brat 2. I'm tired as fuck and Fon isn't the only one that's going to take a nap." Watari didn't even bat an eye at his language given that Luculia was asleep, that in itself was amusing, even to the half dead tired arcobaleno.

Shuan still felt hesitant. Watari smiled at his preservation, "It's quite alright, my boy. Go sleep for a while." The old man's words definitely made him feel a little better and he wandered off to the bed.

The girl was so small and petite, he immediately noted, seeing as how little space she was taking up. Her flames were still so apparent even whilst she was unconscious, less wild, more like a comforting blanket of comfort that radiated through the aircraft but most noticeably condense in close vicinity.

As he slid into the bed, the mist and lightning along with all the currently attending animal partners joined him and slipping under the heated blanket. He sighed in relief when he finally closed his eyes, it would be the first peaceful sleep he had ever had during his 11 years of life and he would enjoy it.

* * *

A few moments after they had all dozed off, Watari pulled out a camera from his ward's bag and took a picture of the moment. It was blindingly adorable, he had the full intention of framing it and putting it up on the wall at home.

The old man sat himself down on the lazy boy that sat nearby to the bed and leaned back to relax.

A voice spoke through his headphones, "All ready to fly, Watari?"

The man in question chuckled softly, glancing over the others with a fond look.

"Yes, _Bovino-kun._ Feel free to start when ready."

"Aye, sir~" The charismatic man sounded, "I'll wake y'all up when we get there. It'll be about 3 hours give or take."

Watari let out an understanding hum, "Thank you for taking the time to fly us over, Alfio."

The young adult cackled, "Anything for you, _sensei."_

* * *

**Next time: Ch 9 - Enter: Little Kyoya! It's finally rescue time~**


	9. Stealing from the Triads

"Sorry to wake you, kids but we're here." An unfamiliar voice informed them.

Shuan was the first to wake (out of who was left at the very least). He slowly sat up groggily, one arm helping him sit somewhat upright and the other rubbing relentlessly at his eyes, trying to rid himself of how tired he felt.

Noticeably, he wasn't the only one in that predicament. In fact, Luculia had it worse. When her only remaining source of warmth outside of her blanket moved to leave, she curled up into a ball and stuffed her face into his thigh, groaning softly.

Shuan, who was basically half dead, gently raised a hand to shift the girl off but she stubbornly stayed put. He placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her a few times, "Come on, Luculia. We're here."

She rolled herself deeper into the blankets and into his side, "Dun wanna…" Shuan easily gave up the task of waking her up, he was way too tired for that. Reaching his arms out behind his head, he stretched out his stiff muscles before plonking his arms back into his lap.

Now, slightly more awake, he noticed that there was a separating door that split the bed area from the other parts of the plane. He didn't even realise that before.

The said door folded open moments later and a few familiar faces rolled through.

Verde stared blankly at the scene in front of him before the corner of his mouth slid into an evil grin, "Come on, brat. Stop clinging onto your new boyfriend and get out already."

Lu shot awake and sat up, shoving Shuan off the bed. "He's not my boyfriend, you old geezer!" Her short, more-on-the-brown-side-of-maroon hair was basically a birds nest. There were pieces of hair sticking out everywhere. She was visibly still tired if her eyebags were anything to go by.

A groan from the aircraft floor caught her attention and she climbed over to the edge of the bed only to see Shuan sitting on the floor, rubbing the ache out of his shoulder. She smiled and laughed apologetically, "Sorry, Shuan."

Verde snorted and Fon smiled, amusement dancing in his eyes. Viper floated up to the girl and planted himself in her birds nest of hair, "Get moving, Hime." He commanded. She half-heartedly whined back in response.

Shuan stood up of the carpet with stiff movements and wandered out through the door, Luculia following shortly after clumsily stumbling out of bed. She honestly had no fucks to give about her hair.

Shuan ruffled his own hair then shook it out resulting in his typical hairstyle. Apparently, it was _au naturel. _Lu huffed at the back of his head, completely not jealous at how easy it was for him to maintain.

He raised an amused eyebrow at her and looked pointedly at her own mess of hair before continuing on to the doorway.

Lu found it nice that he felt comfortable enough to be somewhat playful with the group now, well at least her. I suppose sleeping together for a night and kicking him off the bed really does that to a person.

The pair sat down and slipped on their shoes that Watari had moved to the couches near the exit. Watari snorted at the state of his ward, well I suppose both of them were his wards now. It was mostly Luculia that he was laughing at.

The girl in question puffed her cheeks, "_Mou!"_ She whined, "It's not that bad is it?"

Verde took the chance to hop onto the resident cloud's shoulder since he was sitting down. He eyed the girl up and down from his new perch and let out a snort of his own.

"Nope -hehe-, you're completely fine." Lu glared at his pathetic attempt at concealing his laughter and lies.

Fon smiled serenely and walked up to her holding a hairbrush that he was received from Watari shortly before. It was considerate yet the amount of amusement that shone from his eyes made her feel completely defeated.

She sighed in resignation, "Thanks, Fon." The corner of his mouth twitched up slightly further for a brief moment.

Viper floated off her head and onto the seat beside her as she brushed her hair out to an acceptable level.

Watari walked out of the control room moments later alongside a young man, probably around his mid-twenties. In his arms were a few sets of clothes in which he handed to the youngest two of the bunch.

They both took them gratefully.

The young man had a goofy grin on his face and a head of black curly hair. He reminded her of what she would think a younger version of curly would be like, thus dubbing him 'Curly 2'.

Watari gave the man the 'go-ahead' gesture, to which he responded with a tilt of the head in acknowledgement.

"Yo! I'm Stefano Bovino. I was your pilot for the flight~" Luculia blinked at him for a moment before grin split across her face.

"Hi, Curly 2!"

Watari and the arcobaleno sighed simultaneously with Watari and Verde facepalming in resignation. Shuan just sent them all confused looks which Verde waved off with his free hand. God forbid she ever stops nicknaming non-elements or even worse, she starts nicknaming elements themselves.

Curly 2's grin stretched wider if it was even possible. He totally loved this kid already, "Hey, Bambina!"

Watari sat himself down on one of the seats and shooed the kids off to change, "Go get dressed now. We'll be leaving for the Triads in about an hour."

Lu complied and jumped in the back room to get dressed. Watari had given her a grey long-sleeved shirt and black Capri length tights along with a black short sleeve jacket that she layers on top, zipping only the top of it up to allow for easier movement. The jacket had a lot of pockets, pockets with _stuff in _them but she resigned herself to look at it later. Watari also always seemed to revert back to the Capri leggings, she never knew why.

Shuan had taken the front room to get dressed and was already out by the time she got back. Watari had given him a simple black long-sleeve which he rolled up to the elbows and comfortable looking jogger pants which she was _sure_ that had secret pockets in it because that was like a Watari trademark. It looked pretty damn good for clothes that Watari somehow magicked up somewhere in between meeting Shuan and getting to this point.

Lu grinned brightly at him, "Looking good!" He spared her a small amused look and a slight inclination of the head in return, "You, as well."

Luculia hopped out of the jet to join the others and Shuan was about to follow suit when a heavy arm wrapped around his shoulder.

It took all of his will power not to judo flip the poor pilot out of the plane.

The said pilot grinned a very Stefano grin, "You gotta step up that complement game if you wanna get the girl, bud!"

Shuan sent him a pointed look as the man ushered him out into the darkness of the night.

"I'll be here for your speedy get away. Good luck, boys and little lady~" Luculia gave him her trademark salute, in which he barely saw in the dimmed light of the landed grounds. Needless to say, he still saw it so he saluted right back.

A man very worthy to be called a Stefano, 10/10 Luculia approved. Welcome to the Curly Stefano Squad, Curly 2.

* * *

It was about 1 am in the morning, the skies were pitched black and the group were making their way to the safe spot that Fon had prepared several weeks in advance. Fon spoke of the area being completely hidden with no surveillance, it was located on the edge of the Wo Hop To Triad's territory.

He explained that it was the middle ground between the Triad grounds and the landing port where their getaway was located so it would be the most ideal location.

Fon notified them that he expected that someone would be seen and that they'd need to fight. Even if it was for a slight moment. He spoke, mostly to Luculia and Shuan that should they be attacked, they should not and cannot even hesitate to kill the assailant because they won't give them the mercy you might consider giving them.

Watari passed around earpieces to keep in contact with, telling them all to never take them off, and handed Luculia a ring on a chain for her to place around her neck.

"The lightning flames," He explained briefly but she understood what he meant. It was her back-up plan in regards to her barriers. She had several spools of a large variety of wires and threads in her pockets along with a few sets of senbon and cards.

Those cards were her personal choice of weapons. She trained hard with them and had to experiment with her own fighting style because it was such a unique choice. Generally, she used them like throwing knives, attaching her wires for positioning and used them as an extension to her barriers. At that current moment, that was all she had. She might not be the most capable of the team, but she was willing to do her best.

Verde once questioned her why she never learnt to use illusions given her access to Viper as a tutor but Viper (after $20) explained that her affinity to mist flames ended at barriers. Her sky flames were so overwhelming that her mist flames were almost non-existent. It was a miracle in itself that she could use them at all.

Contrary to what she thought initially, Shuan hadn't slept nearly as long as Luculia did. Half-way through the flight, Watari had woken him up to organise a weapon for him. Luckily for him, he was versed in how to use a gun along with standard street fighting. He was given a single-handed blade and a side-arm as weapons. The pair along with his psychic abilities would be more than enough to keep him alive.

If he knew any less, Watari would have insisted he stay back with Stefano.

"…it's time," Fon announced through the earpiece.

The plan was a simple get-in get-out strategy. Viper, Fon and Luculia would enter under the guise of illusions and do the full rescue themselves. Viper was the only one capable of hiding Lu's monstrous amount of flames from detection and Fon was a necessary factor for the pair to actually come with them.

Should anything happen, Watari and Shuan were on backup. Watari was a talented and experienced sharpshooter along with Shuan's psychic abilities, they would never miss.

Verde remained back with Stefano and Keiman in the aircraft, managing the connection systems and mapping out the blueprint in case Fon required such.

The trio entered the building with no issues, no alarms, the area was dead silent. The feeling was unnerving. Fon had taken the front position and Viper perched himself on Lu's shoulder. It was way too quiet for their liking.

The Triads were active at night like any other underground organisati- "Freeze!" She hissed out to Fon. He didn't hesitate to follow orders.

She let out a sharp breath and scooped her storm into her arms, her heart beating rapidly. She walked up to the spot Fon was about to walk into and bent down to the floor, bringing the said arcobaleno closer to what she was trying to point out.

A laser, a thin, almost impossible to see laser lay hovering millimetres above the ground's surface. Fon was half a stride away from walking in to it. She didn't know how she knew it was there, perhaps her training with wires helped her see these things?

Viper decided that he would explain her hyper intuition to her after the mission given Watari gave his consent.

Fon let out a sharp breath, "Do you know how many there are, Luculia?"

She grimaced slightly, "I can't give you an exact number but there are a few there, and some are moving."

"Do you think you can get us through, Hime?" Viper asked in a serious tone. "If you have the slightest doubt, don't do it. We'll find another way."

"No, I can do it." She felt resolved, she could do it. She held an arm out for Viper and he floated into her embrace.

She shifted her gaze to the stars. The passer-by stars in this area seemed spiteful of the Triads. Seeing at they were trying to communicate to her in morse code, but she couldn't understand it.

She stood still and just tapped along to the pattern on her arm. The one outlier star that had chosen to approach her was giving her the message and she was simply relaying it.

Both Fon and Viper recognised the message.

Fon frowned, _"B-E-H-I-" _His face went white.

Dread flooded her veins as Viper instantly dropped the illusion, "DOWN" he hissed to the girl.

Luculia was frozen, her muscles had gone stiff. As much as she wanted to respond, her body wasn't agreeing with her.

A rapid hissing sound and a wave of boiling heat caught her attention when suddenly her back was on the ground. The assailant's blade narrowly missing her nose as she fell and phased right through the red star that had knocked her over. His body fell dead barely a moment later.

Lu was in shock, her breathing was hitched and she was trembling.

Watari had taken the man down. She was safe for now.

"Calm down, Hime." Viper told her, building the illusion back up to a secure level. She nodded stiffly, blinking away any traces of the tears that had been welling up in her eyes.

She bowed in the direction of the star that had saved her. "_Thank you…"_ she whispered hoarsely.

She tapped the reply. Fon breathed out in relief and understanding, Viper sent him a questioning look having also recognised the message but not the context.

"A relative?"

Fon smiled sadly, "My sister. She said that the man that was just taken out has a control key that excepts you from detection. It's a part of the defence detail so they can have patrols as well."

Lu continued to tap in code.

"And that she believes she should be saying 'Thank you' to you for saving her child and grandchild." That made her smile even for just a little bit.

Lu's expression soon pulled into a grimace and she flinched away as she approached the dead body to get the control key. She barely swallowed the oncoming bile back down as she let Viper go so, she could rip the tag off the corpse's body. She stuffed the item in her pocket and offered her arm to Viper once more.

When he was in place, she took her first steps through the series of lasers. Her mind wasn't screaming at her to stop, so she breathed knowing that, even just for the meantime, everything was going just fine.

* * *

"This is it." The storm announced with a gesture of the arm towards the traditional looking building.

Luculia wandered up the door and let both the arcobaleno out of her arms and onto the porch.

"Do you think it's trapped?" She asked worriedly.

Fon smiled serenely, "No, it's not. They do not trap residences since they raised several too many alarms due to midnight walks and the such. It's quite alright."

Lu walked onto the porch and slid the door open, visibly startling the occupants.

Within the room was an attractive Asian woman sitting at the table, a young boy, probably a year or two younger than her was sprawled on her lap, with the clear intent of fighting any intruders.

The woman, Mei, relaxed when she saw Fon. "_Uncle, you came._" He nodded a response, "_Yes, however, we need to move immediately. It's only a matter of time before they find the bo-"_

Alarms flared loudly across the estate.

Viper tsked, "This isn't going to be a fun escape."

"Luculia," Fon called out, she glanced over at him. "Take Kyoya, both myself and Viper will handle Mei. It'll be much easier for you both to escape first because of your overall sizes."

She nodded stiffly, "Okay."

The Kyoya boy took a glance at his mother. She smiled kindly at him, "_Stay safe, Kyoya."_ He mimicked Luculia's reply and walked over to her. She found herself feeling impressed by the maturity the boy was displaying.

For being only one or two years younger than her, Kyoya was a decent amount smaller than her. Lucky for her, she could carry him.

She hopped off the porch and presented her back to him, "_Let's go, Kyoya" _He hesitated for a brief moment.

_Pop, pop!_ His eyes shone in excitement when little animals popped their heads out of her hair to allow the boy to see him. Lu smiled at the scene, he was so cute.

Kyoya complied easily the next time she offered her back and wrapped his arms around her neck. Lichi and Cosmo remained tucked securely on the top of her head and gave the boy little waves to which he beamed at. She nodded towards the arcobaleno.

They nodded back.

"They will likely find you first," Viper warned, "Your flames are apparent, and you'll need to get out quickly or risk getting caught."

She jumped slightly to reposition the younger boy and nodded understandingly, "I got it."

A beep sounded from her earpiece. Watari had heard and acknowledged.

_"Ready? I'll release the illusion at your mark."_ Viper asked, Lu breathed out slowly before nodding once more.

"_Yeah, I am."_

Shots could be heard barely a second later.

* * *

Her first move was to run. She was always told over and over, _if you're being shot at, never run in a straight line. It's much easier for them to hit a target running in a pattern._

Lu could feel the panic in Kyoya's form. His grip around her neck was tight but consciously loose enough for her to breathe, A fact that she appreciated heavily. His muscles were stiff and his flames, whilst still dormant, were trembling.

It helped tremendously to calm him down when Cosmo went to keep him company. Lichi stayed put as a look out in case she missed something or took a wrong turn.

Lichi made a noise to catch her attention and patted the left side of her head. Taking the hint, Luculia took the next left.

The corner that they passed helped reduce the number of shots taken at them significantly. Then, it went silent.

Fuck, she hated silence. Silence always meant something was wrong.

_'HIT THE DECK'_

Luculia slid across the ground, dropping a hand to support her body. Kyoya impressively kept himself attached to her.

_A sniper,_ she mentally hissed. Annoying things they were.

She shuffled Kyoya to a more secure position before bolting off to the gate.

"_I need you to hold on," _She warned the younger boy before dropping her hands into her pockets for her weapons. Kyoya wrapped his legs around her torso and held onto her like the lifeline she was.

Lu stringed a web of razor wire over the gate she scraped past, twirling around the corner of the wall for protection. She kneeled down and let the boy off, she was exhausted. She didn't think she would be able to carry him all the way, he'd need to run. Even it if was just a short distance, they were almost there.

She slid several cards onto the ground behind the razor web. Bombs. Verde had made them for her using her own flames, he told her that was one of the advantages of having a monstrous volume of them. She could make mass destruction of whatever the characteristics of the flames she used, in her case, petrification. Perfect for a getaway.

She put a hand on the upper part of Kyoya's back and lead him out into darker ends of the streets, her other hand pressed against her earpiece, "We're out of the compound." She informed the group.

Lu grimaced, her head was trying to tell her that something wasn't right. She knew never to ignore her gut, well in this case, her head. She shot cautious glances all around her general vicinity, maybe she was just paranoid.

Slight crackling was heard before a familiar, usually snarky voice replied, "Good work, head down to the safe zone and regroup with the rest before returning."

She strained a smile, "Alrighty."

Kyoya turned towards her with a questioning look. She smiled in return, "_We need to get to the meeting point before we go back. We'll catch up with your mother there."_

He nodded silently.

...

'_Behind you... '_

Lu felt it, Kyoya saw it. His eyes widened in fear, staring at something behind her. Her eyes widened in shock, a tear of sweat dripped down the side of her neck. Lu shifted her vision to the stars and took a single glance behind her before diving forward, pushing Kyoya to the ground and rolling back onto her feet with him in her arms, an explosion tickling the edges of her skin.

She shifted her vision back to normal. It seems like she wasn't the only one that knew how to use flame bombs. She tsked under her breath, upset at the situation.

She needed to take out their pursuer before they reached the Rendezvous point otherwise, she'd be risking the safety of the whole squad.

Lu turned a sharp corner and slid herself along with Kyoya into the darkness. Checked the surroundings, no bombs but there were stars. She didn't know how to differentiate alive from dead stars, it was something she really needed to work on ASAP.

She needed to be quick.

Her hand pressed into the earpiece, "I'm going to pass the earpiece to Kyoya and send him ahead. We're being chased."

"O-oi-"

She unhooked the communication device before she could receive any protests and wiped it off on her jacket before leaning down and hooking it around Kyoya's right ear. He jumped and almost hissed at her for touching him.

She sent him an apologetic look before scooping Lichi off of her head and holding him out for the mini-but-not-mini Fon to take.

Kyoya cupped his hands for the monkey to jump into, Lichi climbed up his arm and perched on his shoulder.

_"I'm going to send you ahead, Kyoya," _She said quickly, placing her hands on his shoulders and turning him away from her. She fumbled through her pockets for some sort of emergency weapon for him only to land on a small pair of daggers that were belted against the inner side of her jacket.

_"Lichi will tell you where to go," _She undid the belt and hooked it around his waist. _"Use those for emergencies, okay? Stay safe."_

After a muffled gunshot that she barely dodged, pulling the boy away from danger and rolling further into the shadows, came through, she pushed the boy forward. There was no time for him to be stubborn of hesitant. _"Go!" _She demanded, bolting into the open streets.

He eyed her hesitantly and stared at her fleeting form for a long moment before bolting off on his own path, he wasn't going to fail. He was a _Hibari,_ **Hibaris do not fail.**

Her eyes flickered momentarily to ensure she was the only one being chased. Luckily for her, that was the case, the only few stars that were moving faster than a walking pace were following her.

Now all she could do was rely on her instincts. She linked the back of her mind to her minimal mist flames and let autopilot do the work with regards to the nearby snipers. Since she was alone, she could let it do as it pleased and not risk it harming Kyoya.

She felt sick as she ran down the streets of China, her flames had harmonized her mist with her intuition, but it felt like every time she placed up a mist barrier, _something_ was being ripped from her being. The voice was more like a feeling nowadays, if there was something dangerous coming, like the bullets it would tell her. But now it just felt exhausted.

She noticed that when Viper had her flames covered in illusions her intuition had died down. Whilst it was still there, it felt muffled to the point where she only barely stopped Fon _and_ she almost got beheaded. It was a nasty feeling knowing how much she relied on her instincts.

Lu knew she needed to cut the link she set up between her mist and her instincts, it was hurting her. She let out a sharp breath and cut the link. A flush of relief flooded her veins, the oncoming headache had vanished, but she still had the pursuers to deal with.

She hoped that Kyoya got away safely.

Lu dived to the side of the street and pressed her back against the wall of a nearby shop, her eyes flickering to see that the enemy was following her on the roofs. Five of them.

She took out four cards and held them in her dominant -right- hand.

They had fallen to a standstill as Lu caught her breath back, trying to keep her panting to a minimum. She really didn't want to kill them. Ideally, she'd lose them but that was unlikely, they were marginally faster than her.

But it didn't hurt to try. So, she just bolted down a side street, fuck the rendezvous point. She was half positive that Verde had a GPS tracker on her anyway, she was gonna run it straight down to the extraction point.

_-fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck_

No, her language was great, Verde was the best childhood role model she could possibly have.

They were gaining on her and Cosmo squeaked to alert her to the cards she had prepared in her hands.

Uhh… what did Cosmo want her to do with them?!

Her flames were even _louder_ and _more apparent_ than before if that was even possible. She had probably annoyed and woke up half of China by unintentionally flaring her flames at 2 to 3-ish am in the morning. Geez, if she wanted to live she was probably never coming back to China within her current lifetime.

Cosmo squeaked again from his perch on her shoulder, pointing insistently at her cards as he held onto the cloth covering her shoulder for dear life.

She whined tiredly as she continued to run herself to death, "What do you want me to do?!"

The squirrel dragged a paw down his face in exasperation, she felt so frustrated. "Cosmo!" she whined out. His paw burst into flames and he made an exaggerated throwing motion to the ground directly in front of him, taking a half step forward onto the same spot and stomping a few times.

Lu huffed. As stupid as it looked, it felt like the right thing to do at that moment. She swore she was going to feed Cosmo to Keiman if this was a trick.

"Okay, I'm trusting you!"

She channelled as much of her flames as she possibly could into the cards, both mist and sky, and threw them to the ground in front of her. The cards exploded into flames on contact, but she continued to run into the chaos, stopping suddenly on the spot where the cards exploded. She almost tumbled forward due to the momentum.

Half a second later, something swept her off her feet and sent her forward stumbling into a backwards fall. She landed roughly on her behind. "_Ouch!"_

Wincing and rubbing the sore to soothe it, the floor started _moving_ and she clutched onto anything around her to attempt to ground herself. She paled realised she was _still moving_ but she was sitting down and holding onto the fucking ground! It was moving goddamn fast too!

"HIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" she cried into the night, clutching tightly onto the sides of the contraption that had kidnapped her.

The squirrel squealed in glee, letting out a few giggles. Tears were welling up in her eyes and flying off into the wind, "I TRUSTED YOU COSMO!"

His giggles just flew above the volume of the wind, not-so-silently enjoying her misery.

* * *

When they finally came to a stop, the contraption descended onto the ground of the extraction point.

As it made contact with the ground, it immediately disassembled. The four cards she had used to trigger lay innocently to the left of her feet.

Lu sat there still in shock, her maroon coloured hair was everywhere, significantly more messy than usual. When she finally regained her composure, she plonked her back onto the ground behind her and just stared at the night sky above her.

There was absolutely no chance that she could have been followed whatsoever. She could take a little break.

The sound of aircraft doors opening notified her that someone was coming but she couldn't be bothered to spare the oncomer with even the briefest of glances.

Cosmo climbed up her body and sat cheekily on her chubby left cheek, grinning happily at her half dead form. What a sadist.

She could feel and hear the casual and light footsteps walk up to her tired form through the minor vibrations of the concrete.

"Exactly, what part of 'Never take off your earpiece,' did you not understand?" The scientist asked, his hands tucked into his pockets and his eyes looking down over her face. He was clearly unimpressed.

She huffed out a tired laugh and peeked open an eye tiredly, "It turned out okay in the end, right? We won, right?"

Verde's face morphed from a look of utter disbelief into a look of exasperation. He stood back a few steps, "Yes, yes we did." He sighed out."Everyone is inside, your little detour took longer than you probably think."

Lu ushered Cosmo off her face and sat up groggily before stumbling to a stand, "Ugh, I could do with a warm shower. Maybe a nap too."

He rolled his eyes and walked ahead of them, picking up the cards from the ground. "You can go do that after you sit through your very well deserved 1-hour+ lecture from Watari."

The sky groaned. Those lectures were the _worst._

* * *

**Next chapter: Ch 10 - Kyoya gets taught things, some not-so-okay to teach 6-year-olds.**


	10. Tutoring a Budding Carnivore

**Thanks so much for your reviews, favourites and follows! It honestly makes my day to see that you're enjoying my writing.**

* * *

The second she took a step into that aircraft, Watari had greeted her with a stern look on his face. Oh boy, was she screwed.

On the bright side of the situation, she saw Mei and Kyoya safe and sound sitting together on one of the seats.

Apparently, her plan had gone perfectly planned. Both Fon _and_ Mei were very surprised at how mature Kyoya had treated the situation. They spoke of his wild tendencies to love to try and brawl with other people that got too close.

Lu just smiled and laughed, she was incredibly impressed and grateful that he took the whole situation with a grain of salt. If he didn't, they might not have made it at all.

The poor boy's eyes darted to the side as a slight blush flickered over his cheeks. Such a tsundere~

Through the intercom system of the plane, Stefano, AKA Curly 2, notified them that the flight was going to be a long one back to Italy, around 12 hours of non-stop flying time. Watari informed them that he would be flying the second half of the trip so if they required something from him, they were to ask Luculia or Verde as they know where everything was placed.

Shuan and Lu had unclasped the table from the aircraft floor and moved it to the side, creating space on the floor for them all to gather round. Lu had deemed herself too icky to take a nap so she was going to do the next best thing, play games.

She pulled out a deck of cards from her pocket and placed them in the middle of the slowly growing circle of participants. Watari had chosen not to participate as he decided that he preferred to complete his work but the majority of the others -excluding Curly 2- had gathered around.

Lu rolled onto her stomach and laid on the fluffy rug, Kyoya joined her shortly after seeing the crowd of animals surrounding her. It'd be ironic to see him so keen to crowd if they knew how he'd be like in about 10 or so years.

Shuan had planted himself next to the girl, sitting with his legs crossed. He swiped up the desk of cards and started shuffling. Kyoya had been sending him odd looks so he raised an eyebrow at the younger cloud.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Luculia waved him off, _"He's Japanese-Chinese, so speak one or the other. Also, he's probably worried because I threw a bomb that looked worryingly identical to the cards you're toying around with."_

Shuan sent her a flat look, "There aren't going to kill me, right?"

She smiled a little too innocently for his liking, _"No it won't, and Japanese, please." _He rolled his eyes and started dealing the cards, _"Kyoya-kun, you playing?"_

The boy looked up from the little monkey in his hands meeting his eyes before looking back down at the apparently more interesting monkey. A vein popped on the older boy's temple, _"Oi…"_

Lu sweat dropped and pulled a book from one of the drawers under the chairs, _"Kyo-chan~" _she cooed.

Shuan gave her an unimpressed look, she stuck her tongue out at him.

Kyoya raised an eyebrow at the girl. She beamed at him (he was so cute), _"Wanna read this book with me~?"_

Shuan was sending him the oh-come-on-you-didn't-even-acknowledge-me look with a slightly irritated glint in his eye. Kyoya eyed the book for a moment before glancing at the old cloud and smirking, _"Okay, nee-san."_

Shuan half-glared at him, _"You can read the book __**if**__ you play a game of speed with me after. Your reflexes seem decent."_

His eyes shone at the challenge, a slightly disturbingly murderous grin made its way across his adorable face. _"Deal."_

The older cloud grinned equally as evilly back.

Lu rolled her eyes and opened the picture book and laid it flat on the group in front of her. She flipped to the front page.

_"…An introduction to AP Biology – The Animal Kingdom."_ Shuan read out loud. Kyoya was immediately interested and grabbed at the book, holding it upright so he could read it.

Lu grimaced at it, "Verde!" she whined, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

The arcobaleno in question lifted his gaze from his laptop and raised an eyebrow at her, "Yes?"

She twisted the book so she didn't stop the future carnivore from reading about his brethren but so she could still give the lightning a good view of the cover.

"What's this thing? Why do you have such a skinny AP biology book? I thought it was a picture book!" She released the book to the younger boy and sighed.

Verde snorted, "If you read the title, you wouldn't be having this problem."

She grumbled under her breath, "Clearly."

A tug on her sleeve alerted her to the dormant cloud, she tilted her head. _"Hmm? What's wrong?"_ He pointed at the picture of a lion mauling what looked like to be a gazelle goat. She paled, Fon might kill her.

She laughed nervously and Shuan snorted at her predicament unhelpfully. She shot him a glare. _"That's a carnivore," _She explained, _"It's an animal that eats only meat."_

He looked at her with wide eyes, his eyes darting back to the image with clear excitement. _"It's strong because it only eats meat?"_

_"Nonono-"She_ waved her arms around in front of her, _"Carnivores are strong, yes but Omnivores are also strong. They eat both veggies and meat, you see."_

His jaw dropped slightly open, _"Oh, so Carnivores are the strongest but Omnivores are Carnivores that act like weak herbivores but are still strong?"_

She sweatdropped, parenting was _hard._ Oh well, he'll learn about it in middle school. She beamed at him, _"I guess so! Carnivores and Omnivores need to be strong to get their food after all!"_

He _beamed_ at her, _"I want to be a carnivore!"_

Oh-fucking- boy. She paled several shades, _"A-ah, you have you ask your mom okay?" _

The boy nodded strongly and walked over to his mother, book in hand and a determined look on his face.

Shuan leaned back on the couch," You're screwed." He stated.

She huffed, "I know I am" she sulked. "Leave the wi-fi modem with my body, preferably powered and subscription paid?"

Shuan snorted, "No."

Verde sent her the most exasperated look, "What the fuck?"

She shrugged, "I need wi-fi to live. Even if I'm dead, I'll be a happy and entertained ghost."

Watari smiled kindly at her, "Whilst I will leave a modem on your grave, powered and paid, I won't be updating nor sheltering it from rain. Nor will I be paying for premium speed like you have at home."

She puffed her cheeks and pouted. "I don't wanna die anymore."

"Good. Keep it that way and start saving up your post-death fund." Viper wisely advised her, "I'll happily use your money to maintain for your post-death wifi for you… so long as I'm in your will."

She stared at him dryly, "Gee, thanks."

…

"…only Kyoya and Watari are gonna be on my will now."

* * *

About a week into the Hibari's and Shuan's integration into their new Italian residence (i.e. Watari's Base), everyone was quite accustomed to having them around.

Both Kyoya and Shuan had taken upon trailing along with Lu to whatever adventures or experiments she did. This was absolutely fine with her, that is until they got into a glaring competition (mostly one-sided) and ended up destroying her latest contraption. The one in which they didn't even know what it was.

The sky sat them down and scolded them at breakfast in front of everyone else. She was somewhat hoping the embarrassment would make the lesson stick in their heads better since what they had done was _extremely dangerous_. They were so lucky that they only destroyed magnetic wire connectors rather than a flame bomb test or a poison gas experiment.

Kyoya huffed, feeling annoyed but resigned to his mistake under the patronising flat stare that his mother was currently giving him. Shuan just looked to the side. It's not that he triggered, nor actually fought the younger cloud. He just sort of… let the kid do what he wanted and dodged away from getting hit. How would he know that it would only make the younger cloud agitated, attack more aggressively and subsequently blow up one of his sky's machinery?

Okay, he did look down slightly when she started to tear up before getting mad. He did feel a little bad. He vowed to never be the cause of her crying again because the feeling he got when he saw the tears was just _nasty. _It was disgusting and he never wanted to feel it again.

Lu sighed, "_Just don't ever do it again, okay? It's really dangerous."_

The guilty pair looked away and nodded. The sky smiled brightly, clearly satisfied with their compliance.

"Good!" She grinned_, "Now, eat up. We're going on an adventure to the streets today~"_

Shuan's mood visibly brightened at the suggestion. He was going to flaunt his street smarts as much as he could.

The cloud smirked at the younger boy beside him and nudged him, "_Hey, Kyoya-kun."_

He eyed the blonde suspiciously, that plotting grin was slightly unnerving. He grunted an acknowledgement.

_"Wanna learn how to pickpocket?_" Lu sparkled at the suggestion.

_"_I do!" She exclaimed.

The smaller boy nodded at the idea, agreeingly. "Hn."

Mei looked doubtful about the idea and Watari sighed, _"Take Viper with you."_ The said mist glared at the sun before turning to the conspiring trio.

_"I get half of the profits."_

_"Fiiiine."_ The girl drawled. She sent Mei a comforting look, _"Don't worry, we'll take real good care of Kyo-chan!"_

The woman smiled gently at the little sky, _"Thank you, Luculia. Do stay safe."_

_"But, of course we will!"_

The trio was currently situated, crouched down in a small circle within a dark alleyway. The buildings they were between faced directly to the busy village market place, they were quite the distance from home. Viper had decided to _not_ actually go with them, per se, but preferred to watch over them from a safe distance. He would intervene if he really needed to.

"_First step. As a newer pickpocket, it's easier to work in a group."_

Kyoya grunted in displeasure at the idea and Shuan sympathised with him.

_"I know it's not ideal but at least your team is just going to be us. When I started, I had to work with a gang and I despised them."_

Lu ruffled Kyoya's hair and smiled as the boy tried to swat her offending fingers away. "_It's okay, Kyo-chan. I believe in you! We'll be there to back you up if something happens."_

His somewhat displeased look spun into determination, his eyes glittering purple. With a firm nod, he stood up.

Shuan mimicked the movement and lead the pair to the edge of the alley, staying within the shadows but still in a position so they had a decent view of the street.

_"See all the people?"_ Kyoya nodded once. _"-Since it's crowded, it's a lot easier. The aim is to either slip it from the person without them noticing or to accidentally bump into them and take it before apologising as if it was an accident."_

The older cloud's eyes scanned the crowd for an easy first target. Hm…

_"Lulu, you have to stay here."_

The girl puffed her cheeks into a pout, Shuan rolled his eyes at her typical reaction and flicked her forehead. _"Your flames, idiot. It'll give him away in a second."_

She opened her mouth to protest but decided against it and shut it choosing to settle with a deeper pout, _"Fine… but I get to watch from here?"_

He gave her a nod which triggered a bright smile. Shuan sighed in fond exasperation before ushering the younger boy closer to the open street.

He raised a finger, _"See that woman buying things at the street vendor? The one with the fruits?"_

Kyoya grunted an acknowledgement, "_Hn."_

_"That's your target, kiddo."_ Kyoya glared at the older boy from the corner of his eye for the 'kiddo' comment. The cloud gave him an encouraging grin and pushed him forward, _"Go for it. I'll be a few behind you, your target is the coin pouch."_

He then ventured into the Sunday market crowd towards his target.

Both Shuan and Lu watched him with a careful eye, the second he seemed distressed or in trouble, they were going to commence their extraction plan.

Lu would shock their core with a sudden but gentle zap of flames. This would allow Shuan to slip quickly through the crowd and usher the boy to safety, covering them in a basic crowd blending illusion. A simple and flawless extraction, given the younger cloud didn't make a fuss about it.

Lu hummed in contemplation about the situation, her eyes still glued on Kyoya's movements, "Hmm… I'd say he's doing pretty well."

Shuan shot her a dry look, "You say that like you have at all any more experience than he does."

Her cheeks puffed in annoyance, "Oi! For your information, I'm sure I could steal anything with minimal effort. MI-NI-MAL!"

"If you mean that you could go up to someone and knock them out before taking their stuff, that doesn't count."

She looked so offended it was comical, "Noooooo…." She trailed off. "…I would, y'know, maybe flaunt my acting skills instead. That'd be easier."

He blinked for a moment in thought, "That… is true. You could probably pull off a decent distraction technique with that face."

Her face flushed, "W-what do you mean by 'that face'?!" she stuttered out slightly offended.

The boy didn't react, his eyes still locked on the streets and shoved her attention to where he was looking.

"We need to get him out of there," He said hurriedly, "Distract the street vendor from the stall to his left. I'll grab him."

Shuan dashed out onto the street and disappeared from her view under the shelter of his own illusions. Lu morphed her vision to view the large array of stars that filled the streets, it was so blinding it somewhat hurt.

Quickly locating the familiar semi-purple star that belonged to Kyoya and seeing the brighter, more vibrant mixed shade purple one quickly approaching him, she needed to work quickly.

It was difficult though, there were so many people and they all weren't flame active, thus all their flame cores were presented as a dull white colour. She flickered her vision between standard reality and grabbed onto the, what she assumed as, the star of the left street vendor and quickly shot of a string of flames and poked his star in the side.

She shifted her eyes back to reality and paled as she saw the wrong person double over in pain. The person that she had secured was not too far off her original target and she honestly didn't have much time left so…

She just poked all the stars within a 5-metre radius of the one she had gotten previously.

It wasn't the best tactic _at all_ but it worked…? Oh well, at least she did her job in the end.

Shuan had noticed the wrong person keel over and tsked in annoyance knowing Lu likely got the wrong person. He still pushed on and quickly swiped the boy from attention. A single droplet of nervous sweat made its way down the side of his neck when he realised that Kyoya had already been seen by another person that was near the target he had identified for Lu but not quite the person.

He chucked the younger boy over his shoulder and prepared to bolt out of there when suddenly a whole group of about 8 or so people just keeled over and fell to their knees.

Kyoya was kicking and punching him to make him let him down when Shuan's muscles froze along with his expression towards their current predicament. The younger cloud used that chance to slip out of his grip and glare at the blonde as he landed on the ground.

What he wasn't expecting was to see Shuan's expression completely blank in shock whilst staring at something. Kyoya looked completely exasperated when he saw the group of people on the floor, clutching their chests in pain.

_"Hn." _He grunted out, tugging on the older boy's shirt.

Shuan shook himself out of it and coughed slightly to regain his composure, "_Ahem, right let's get out of here."_

With Kyoya in the lead, they ventured back into the alley where Lu was waiting. Her eyes shined in pride as well as in waiting for praise for her utmost, well in her opinion, very good contribution to their escape.

Shuan sighed at the sight of her and patted both her and Kyoya's heads absentmindedly, _"Good job, you two. Now let's go home."_

* * *

Watari full on snorted when he watched the events play out. It wasn't against his own morals to bug his little wards with cameras when they left the house without him, it was for their own safety, after all, he was just being cautious.

Clearly not too cautious, having now collected a recording that would be kept for a long time he was extremely happy. It likely would be broadcasted on one of their 18th or 21st birthdays, maybe both. He chuckled to himself at all the possibilities.

Verde raised an eyebrow at the man and sighed in exasperation when he started giggling to himself.

What the fuck happened to the strict and scary man he portrayed himself to be years ago.

* * *

When the trio of misfits returned from their adventures, they were welcomed by the amused face of Watari and the joyful face of Mei, happy that they were back home safe and sound.

The woman glomped the three as soon as she saw them, _"Welcome back, you three!"_

She turned to Kyoya and crouched down to gather him in her arms. Unsurprisingly he didn't even protest the slightest bit.

_"How are you, Kyo-chan? Did you have fun?" _He gave her a small bob of the head, which in her opinion was absolutely adorable.

_"So, did you win?"_ Verde asked from the couch near the fireplace.

Viper smirked from his perch on the cloud-mist's shoulder as the said cloud dangled the small pouch of coins from his hand for them all to see. _"We only grabbed at her coin pouch and not at her actual wallet. We're not that mean."_

Kyoya snatched the pouch out of hand when he lowered his arm back to his side. The 6-year-old showed his achievement to the his mother, which she beamed at.

_"Ahh~ Mama's so proud of you, Kyo-chan! Kyo-chan's so cute!" _She cooed.

Lu grinned evilly, the evil part flying directly over the mother's attention, _"I know right! We should make cute clothes for him, like the overalls I used to wear but tailored to boys, it'll be adorable! I have some onesies too!"_

The woman beamed at the young sky as Kyoya simultaneously glowered at her from outside of his mother's attention. _"Oh, please do, Luculia-san!"_

Lu snickered, _"I'd be honoured and call me Lu-chan, Mei-san!"_

_"Okay, Lu-chan~"_

The other men in the room sighed and gave the youngest of the bunch a pitying look. Good luck, Kyoya. You've got to deal with the women now.

_"Come, come with me!"_ Lu called behind her as she hopped down the corridor to the stairs. _"We can go to my room and draw up some ideas!"_

Mei placed Kyoya gently on the ground and smiled at him before trailing along behind the only other girl of the house.

Once she was out of sight and hearing range, Kyoya plonked his behind on the floor and slumped back in defeat.

Shuan walked over to him, crouched beside him and looked down at the boy. Verde, Fon and Viper gathered round the half-dead child moments later.

_"How are you, Kyoya?" _Fon asked innocently.

The 6-year-old glared at his biological-but-not-acknowledged-to-be great uncle and threw the coin pouch at him. Viper intercepted the throw and took the money for himself.

Kyoya grumbled. _"Hn."_

Verde gave him a brief pitying look, before turning to walk towards his office. He paused mid-step for a moment when Watari spoke up.

_"Whilst the girls are planning your demise in the form of adorable clothing, why don't we make you a weapon?"_

The young cloud was so hyped and excited by just the suggestion of a weapon for himself that he shot up so fast and slammed his forehead into Shuan's, causing them both to fall back and clutch their aching heads.

Verde spun on his heel and walked back to the group gathering an array of questioning looks. He stared straight into Watari's soul, the groans of pain turning into plain background noise, "I want the details of the weapon after you decide." He demanded.

"Say please, Verde. Demanding things is rude."

The lightning grumbled and begrudgingly drawled out a "Please…" to which Watari nodded happily at and dismissed the poor scientist.

Verde swore that if the little Hibari wasn't in the vicinity, he would have just gone along with his demand but noooo… he has to set a good example on the kids, the leaders of the next generation as he told it.

Verde was positive that Lu had way too much influence over the old man.

Watari gestured the group to follow him to his office to discuss ideas for the young cloud's own weapon.

Needless to say, Kyoya exited that room with a pair of training tonfa and a promise for a future, modified pair of tonfa with features when he had gathered more experience.

* * *

About a week had passed and Kyoya now had a fully fleshed out wardrobe of clothes that he never would want to wear in his life but still ended up wearing at the discretion of his mother and resident sky.

For this particular day, he was dressed in a white short-sleeved shirt layered under a cute yellow overall. It was designed by Mei and based off of one of her favourite species of birds, Canary. Kyoya was even gifted with a stuffed Canary to match his outfit by Verde out of pure amusement.

Kyoya held the present in his hands and glared holes into it as his mother and Lu flicked around his form taking pictures and saying how cute he was.

He wasn't cute, he was vicious and strong!

_"Clearly not, Kyo-chan~" _Shuan sing-songed in amusement having read his expression. _"Wait a few years before you can transition from cute to scary."_

The boy growled at him before plonking his arms down to his sides and sighing in resignation. He wasn't going to get out of this for a while.

He hissed internally. He was a carnivore! Carnivores were meant to be strong, not resigned.

The psychic smiled, _"Carnivore-in-training, kiddo."_

Kyoya grumbled under his breath.

Lu stood up satisfied and smiled, _"These are perfect!"_ (Perfect future blackmail material)

Viper floated up to the girl and landed on her shoulder, observing the photos as she flicked through them.

"Ah, "he started, stopping the girl from flicking further, "I want that one. I'll give you 10% of the profit."

She smiled, "Okay~"

Watari sighed as he watched the girl flick through her whole album of Kyoya photos with Viper stopping her occasionally to demand access to some of them. He needed to work on her bartering tactics before Viper drained too many resources out of her leniency.

He turned to the undisturbed cloud that had positioned himself a decent distance away from the chaos and was leaning on the wall that separated the kitchen from the main room.

"Shuan," He called out, catching the boy's attention. He tilted his head slightly in question.

"Do you have plans for the day?"

"No, not really."

Watari smiled and swapped the language so that the Japanese residents of the house could listen in as well. _"I will take you all to our local church tonight. A great portion of Italians are religious, it would serve you all well to know some of their religious customs."_

Luculia perked up, _"We're going to visit Father Nicolas?"_ The old man smiled and nodded.

Watari had been friends with Father Nicolas for a long time since they were in primary schooling. It was quite the sight when Watari had taken Lu to her first mass. Lu had gotten along swell with the ageing priest as the man organised her Sacraments of Initiation.

He was very impressed with the girl when she made no fuss during the ceremony of Baptism like most other children did with regards to the holy water.

Whilst Watari was loyal to the Catholic church, he did not force the young sky to attend all the masses that he did yet she still decided to tag along. Honestly, Watari was not quite sure whether her reasons were the religious kind or simply to visit her new found friend in Nicolas.

_"Yes, for the most part of the morning we will be going into town to show our new residents the streets of Capo. We will be attending evening mass."_

She beamed at him and cheered,_ "Yay!"_

Kyoya looked at them curiously. A church? How interesting.

Mei looked rather stoked at the idea as well, she had yet to explore the area and hadn't been able to see much of Italy at all. She was very keen to get to know the area.

* * *

**Omake:**

**The machine that brought Lu to safety.**

The girl crawled herself over to the lightning and tugged at his lab coat, a hand swatted her offending fingers away.

"What is it this time?" he asked dryly, pulling his coat towards him and straightening the creases out.

She pouted at him, "I just wanted to ask what the getaway flying thingy you made was and how Cosmo knew how to use it, but I didn't."

The scientist sent her a dry look, "I **did** tell you how to use it and Cosmo was there. You clearly weren't listening then."

She plonked her back onto the rug and curled into a fetal position, "…No, I guess not." She sulked out.

He rolled his eyes, "To repeat myself, that mechanism was a hover board prototype that was programmed to return to base. It's purely powered by flames, the more flames put into it, the faster it goes. If there aren't enough flames, it'll fail and fall. Simple as that."

"Wait, prototype?" She asked, her body shooting back up.

"Yes, you were my guinea pig."

She blinked for a moment before lying down and curling back into herself again.

"Ohh, okay. Thanks."

He sent her a side glance before returning to his work, "No problem, brat."

Shuan deadpanned, "That is not how one should react when told that they were used as a guinea pig for an experiment they didn't know about."

* * *

**Next time - Ch 11: Adventures through the streets of Sicily and bumping into some unexpected Italians.**


	11. An Obtrusive Gathering

"There is a high percentage chance for it to rain horses today."

Watari sent her a curious and amused look at her sudden announcement, "And what brought that up, little flower?"

She shrugged at him and skipped in front of the group and into the open streets of San Vito lo Capo. They were currently on their way to the lovely little church known as Santuario de San Vito.

There was a cute little café that Curly 1 was a regular to and she was hoping to bump into him and introduce him to the new additions to her squad. He _was_ her best friend after all.

The sun was high in the sky, shining brightly over the tops of the surrounding buildings. The roads were narrow in this area so not much sunlight managed to reach them past the tall buildings.

It was the first time that the whole group of… _(Lu, Watari, Verde, Viper, Fon, Shuan, Kyoya, Mei.)_ … 8, yeah, 8. The first time the whole family had gone out together and quite frankly, none of the adults were expecting today to go smoothly.

Exactly, what would go wrong was the question.

When Lu said there was a high chance for it to rain horses, Watari was fully prepared for the young Dino to fall from the sky. Perhaps by tripping out of a window, but he wasn't so sure. He was almost completely sure that she didn't have the ability of foresight but there was a chance that she saw and recognised the boy's star nearby.

Most of the group, sans Mei and Kyoya, had realised the implications of her announcement like Watari had but what really concerned Verde was that, where Dino goes, so does a certain Sun Arcobaleno and he really didn't want to see Reborn. Not now, not ever.

A very familiar and _manly_ scream that was increasing rapidly at a non-linearly rate was heard falling towards them alongside the squawk of a bird.

Watari swiftly pulled Lu back and Dino came plummeting into the hard concrete a few moments later. They winced in pity.

The arcobaleno pacifiers started to glow and… the wrong arcobaleno came soaring down and landing on the stomach of the poor and abused horse of a sky.

Lu and Shuan crouched beside him and poked at his body.

"Do you think he killed him?" She asked the boy next to her.

Shuan shook his head, "Unlikely, he seems alive to me."

The army-uniform-clad baby stomped on the body a few times causing a groan to erupt from the half-dead sky. "Nah, he's fine, kora."

"Collonello!" A more feminine voice called to the new-comer.

The group looked up to see _another _arcobaleno. Verde could not be any more grateful for the mists ability to hold down Luculia's flames.

He didn't think he would be able to deal with more arcobaleno in the house for another decade at least.

Meanwhile, Lu was beaming at the pair. Her experience in regards to meeting arcobaleno had been nothing but positive so far.

Now that she met Collonello and Lal, the only one she hadn't met was Skull and Verde hoped that would never happen. Lal hopped down and cushioned her landing with Dino's gut.

Gosh, she didn't know how he was still alive.

"Muu… I'll charge you for entering our territory." Viper spoke, floating over to the group and landing on Luculia's head.

Lal scowled at him, "As if! This is neutral territory."

Watari smiled lightly with an undertone of menace, "Actually, this particular area is under my own protection."

Collonello and Lal stared at the old man for a while in bewilderment.

"…holy shit, Reborn wasn't lying when he said you were here." Watari raised an eyebrow.

Lu perked up and scooped the two into her arms with a wide and happy smile. "You're so cute!" she exclaimed.

The pair hesitated with their escape plan under the scrutinising and warning gaze that they were subject to by the visibly older man.

His 'happy' smile basically read 'upset my her and die.'

Thus, they stayed perfectly still and let themselves be pampered by the little 7-year-old.

"Wow," she giggled, holding the two comfortably in her embrace. "It's like a collection or something, they just keep coming!"

A tick of irritation flicked onto Lal's temple, "We aren't collectables, brat!"

Lu just laughed it off, "Right, right, of course not!"

She let the pair down, much to their relief, and looked over to Dino where Shuan was still poking at his sides. She sent him a quizzical look, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing this consistently so that when he regains consciousness, he'll either be immune to side jabs or will freak out violently and flail a bit. Either one would be fine."

"I wanna see him freak, kora." Collonello added in helpfully. Lal nodded agreeingly, "Yes, me too."

Viper's camera was out instantly, Fon smiled, very amused and Verde sighed completely exasperated by the scene. This was too typical; he almost saw it coming.

They were all sitting there waiting patiently for a couple of minutes. A few residents and visitors of Capo had walked passed and given them curious looks.

Another familiar face soon popped up in response to Dino's squeals as he awoke.

"Brat, can you stop being so social? Start being a little anti-social and push people away, would you? It's tiring having so many people around."

Lu snickered, "I think I'm good. The more the merrier!" she stretched her arms out in a dramatic gesture only to pull them back to herself to catch the falling shadow.

The newcomer smirked at the scientist, triggering a death glare in return. "Yeah, Verde. The more the merrier~"

Reborn gave Watari and Mei a curt nod of the head in polite greeting in which Watari mimicked and Mei responded with a slight bow.

The Sun relaxed in the sky's arms and huffed, "There are way too many arcobaleno here for my liking."

"It's your fault, idiot," Verde grumbled.

Reborn produced a look of mock surprise, "Oh, right it is. Hah, my bad."

Verde glowered at the hitman.

"If you all reside at our residence, I'll be charging you rent." Viper informed them.

Watari chose that moment to slide himself into the conversation and correct him.

"No, none of you will be residing with us."

Everyone turned their attention to the old man. The majority of them were shocked at his statement due to how welcoming he had been to the rest of them.

Lu frowned and opened her mouth to complain but Watari didn't budge.

The girl didn't understand how to limit her won welcoming nature. He would need to ingrain it into her to know how to say no and when it was alright to let people in. Not everyone is friendly, in fact, the majority of people within our line of work would take the opportunity to assassinate you for cash.

He didn't even flinch when he cut her off sharply.

"Fon's circumstances were inevitable, he had harmonized with you before you even re-entered the house. By that fact and by his own reputation and morals according to Verde, I was quite accepting of him to not be a threat to you, Luculia."

The way Watari said her full name was icky, she didn't like it when he called her by her whole name. Whenever he did it, she was either in trouble or the situation was really serious, she didn't like either scenario.

"Viper, however, was pushing it. If he hadn't been invited personally by Verde to call in a favour he would've been out of the house and bugged or killed on the spot such that he wouldn't enter again without permission as he had done. I have already spoken to him about the details of such and he will not risk the move again."

Lu wilted under his stern gaze and turned her eyes to the ground, "Okay…" she mumbled. "I get it."

Watari gave her an approving nod, "Good."

The newer arcobaleno, as in, Lal, Collonello and Reborn, were somewhat shocked. Lal and Collonello were informed by Reborn that the famous Watari had taken in a young girl and that Verde was residing with them. Given Watari's reputation, they weren't surprised at how he raised the kid but they didn't expect the girl to be such a strong sky though. Even though the hold that their resident mists had on concealing her flames were quite well practised, they could still feel hints of them leaking out.

The rest of the family were more surprised at the manner that Watari had scolded Luculia. They had only seen him playfully teasing and pampering the girl, it was quite the sight indeed.

Dino broke the tense air by groaning and sitting up, rubbing his eyes to try and adjust them to the light.

"Huh…?" he wondered out loud. Lu sent him a weak smile, "Hi, Dino."

He blinked slowly at the familiar girl before shrieking and crawling backwards and away when he looked at who was in her arms.

"Reborn, You're back!"

The said arcobaleno frowned, "Yeah, seems like we've overstayed our welcome."

He gave a polite nod of appreciation to the army duo. "Good job on babysitting, Baka-Dino."

Lal waved him off, "He was good target practise, but he needs to not run in straight lines, nor trip so much."

The rim of his fedora shadowed over his eyes, "Right. In any case, I will be heading off with the idiot." He turned his attention to Watari, "We will be staying for a few days in Capo to do training around the ocean if that's alright?"

The old man locked eyes with the smaller sun, his warnings as clear as day, "That will be fine."

Reborn tilted his fedora to the man and walked off. Dino scrambled up to follow soon after, "A-ah, wait for me!"

As they walked away, Reborn looked down and grimaced. He should've known it wouldn't be so easy to get into Watari's good books, he had only made it more difficult for himself to get to know the little sky.

He gritted his teeth in frustration. It was fine, he was in no hurry to befriend the girl. He just had to make sure he didn't make an enemy of her.

Lal and Collonello made eye contact with each other. What were they supposed to do?

Reborn had given them the task of babysitting his annoying student while he took a job and to wait and meet him in the town near that famous beach in Sicily. They hadn't really planned anything for after and had previously had the intention of just winging it while under the impression that it was neutral grounds.

Watari's reign over the Underworld sector of the tourist town was impeccably strong.

"Um…" Lu cautiously started, bringing attention to herself. She felt really self-conscious at the moment and fidgeted with her fingers, "Can I-" She paused, cutting herself off sharply.

Her initial thought was to ask if she could take Kyoya and Shuan to Curly's café but after the little incident, it felt like she was pushing boundaries was too quickly. She sighed, sucked it up and reworded her request. She glanced up at him for a moment before she adverted her gaze, her toes were suddenly very interesting to look at.

"-I mean, can we go visit Curly's café?" she asked in a hopeful voice.

"Look at who you are speaking with when you request things, little flower." She dragged her gaze back up to meet his own, he looked at her kindly. "Yes, you may visit Stefano with your friends." Her eyes brightened up significantly, she mood visibly turning around for the better. "Do take young Mei with you, though. I will escort the arcobaleno to the church."

She beamed, "Okay!"

She hopped over to the mother-son pair, _"I'm gonna take you to meet my friend at a café!"_ she informed them before walking off out of the small street, _"It's over here!"_

Kyoya huffed something about crowding with herbivores which incited a flick to his nose from his mother. He gave her an offended look before trailing along to follow the sky, Shuan and Mei followed closely behind them watching with amusement.

Watari turned to the remaining people, "I trust that you will not harm the anyone within my territory. You are free to stay in the area, but you will need to find your own residence."

They clearly understood.

"We won't be staying long; we initially came here to drop the horse kid off for Reborn. We will be heading back to our stations soon enough. We will meet again, though."

Watari nodded slowly, "Alright. Feel free to accompany us, we will be attending evening mass. I will be showing these three to our local church before they are free to do what they wish. I need to speak with the pastor."

Lal nodded and Collonello just had the full intention of doing whatever she was going to do. She gave him a glance, "We will take you up on that offer then. It has been a while since I've had the time to attend mass."

Watari gave Collonello a curious look, the little blonde grinned. "I'll tag along too, kora!"

* * *

Lu happily lead Shuan, Kyoya and Mei through the bright and sunny streets towards the beach. They passed several tents with small market shops.

They sold all sorts of things from hats to swimsuits to food. Mei was elated when Lu let her browse the shops on the way to Curly's café.

Unfortunately for her, she was a foreign refugee in this country and didn't have any Italian money on her. When Lu offered to pay for her, she refused profusely, not wanting to be any more of a bother to her and Watari. She also didn't want to dig herself any further into debt where she might be in trouble, financial issues were the most obvious issue she expected to need to overcome in the near future.

_'Hey, hey! Shuuuuannnn' _She called out in her mind. The blonde mentally sighed and she _heard it._

Having read her mind, he only sighed deeper. _"What is it?"_

_'Can you go buy that seashell necklace that Mei was staring at for ages?'_

_'The silver one with the sapphire bead?'_

_'Yeah, that one! And get the fish hook one too, for Kyoya. Feel free to get something for yourself too, I'll pay you back.'_

_'Waitwait, oi… where are you even getting this money? Surely Watari hasn't given you free reign over his bank account.'_

She snorted, raising an eyebrow from the Chinese duo and a facepalm from Shuan.

_'Oh, no. I made it myself! I worked for my Bella Zia and for Curly for a little bit and they paid me.'_

_'Oh, okay. Be right back then. Keep walking, I'll catch up.'_

_'Yessiree!'_

True to his word, Shuan slipped away and purchased a few pieces of jewellery before re-joining the moments before they reached the small beachside café.

He was puffing slightly but regained his composure not too long after.

Mei blinked at his entrance and Kyoya sent him a suspicious look, _"Oh! Shuan-kun, where did you go?"_

He smiled at her pleasantly, _"That's a story for dinner-time, Mei-san." _She nodded understandingly, "_Alright, alright. If you say so."_

Kyoya eyed the sparkling pieces of jewellery that Shuan slipped into one of his many pockets. Behind Mei's back, Lu raised a single finger in front of her lips and winked at the little cloud.

Realisation bloomed across his face and he nodded. Mei sent the trio a curious look which Lu waved off with a smile and turned to the open courtyard, pointing at their destination.

As they approached the café, a familiar delighted laugh echoed through the air, followed by a bulldozer in the form of a tan, curly-haired Stefano.

He ran the young sky over with a hug and swung her into the air, "Sweeeeet Cheeks~! My love, how are you today~?"

She flashed him a broad grin, "Curly, I missed you!"

He tucked the girl into his arms and gave her a big hug before dropping her on her feet. He noticed the new arrivals and raised an eyebrow at his 'best friend'.

She gestured towards the three one at a time, "That's Mei-san, Kyo-chan and Shuan." The first two were noticeably Japanese, Stefano noted, maybe Chinese or both, perhaps?

The blonde boy looked like a French mixed Italian or something along those lines. Watari wasn't one to bring back strangers though, it must've been the little lady. Either way, if they were allowed to venture off alone with the young girl, they must have been approved of at the very least.

Ma… it was fine, he was always armed after all. No close acquaintance of Watari's was incapable of protecting his little ward.

He smiled pleasantly at the woman and children, "Welcome to Capo, my friends!" He turned to Lu and ushered her further into the café with a hand to her upper back. "Let's get seated shall we, sweet cheeks?"

She beamed at him, "Yeah!" she called out before strolling into the café and picking out a table.

Stefano shot the trio a wary glance before turning to follow her. He paused after a few steps and looked at the group over his shoulder, _"Ah… Once again, welcome to San Vito lo Capo. I hope you have a pleasant stay."_

A shiver ran up their spines under his warning look that momentarily melted back into his typical goofy smile as he skipped into the café.

Shuan exchanged looks with Mei for a moment, she smiled weakly and moved to follow Lu into the café.

Watari joined them not long after they were seated. He informed them that Verde had decided to return home to continue his research and that Fon had chosen to accompany the army duo for a short while to visit Reborn and Dino.

He quickly remedied the tension between Stefano and Shuan and explained to the man that the Hibari pair were simply seeking refuge with them for a few moments and were relatives of Fon's. Shuan was a harmonized guardian.

Curly slumped back in his chair and sighed, "Alrighty then. Next time though, tell me this stuff _before_ I bump into the little lady walking around with strangers."

Watari chuckled an agreement. "Of course, my friend. Of course."

* * *

The night quickly came round, the sun had set and the streets with dimly lit by lanterns and street lights.

The nightlife around Sanctuario di San Vito was flourishing, there were crowds of people sitting by the trees, on the benches and even surrounding the café's that were packed full. It was a whole new experience in contrast to the day life of Italy.

Verde was waiting patiently by the doors that lead into the church when Lu jogged up to greet him, scooping him up from behind.

He had long resigned himself to be her personal heat pack, he was used to the sudden hugs though occasionally she would swap it up and use Fon instead. Apparently, Watari and Reborn were the best cuddle buddies because of how they radiated in warmth. She informed them that each flame type had different cuddle characteristics and proceeded to rank them in cuddliness.

As stupid as her reasons were, it was still research information that he was willing to absorb but he was _this_ close to never letting her carry him after she ranked his flame type so lowly. Something about his flames being warm but occasionally spiked up and down in temperature so it wasn't consistent. A similar issue to Fon's but his was more fluid changes.

Shuan and Viper were described as not having nearly as much excess warmth as the other but equally as comforting.

The doors to the church opened not long after they arrived, and they made their way inside for evening mass.

* * *

After the mass was over, the little sky skipped up to the pastor and gave him a big hug, wrapping her arms around his waist and grinning up at him.

"Father Nicolas!" She greeted happily.

The pastor looked down at the girl and smiled, "Hello, little sky. How are you this evening, did you enjoy mass?"

She beamed at him, bouncing on her feet. "I did, Father!"

He nodded along with her antics. "Good, good."

She pulled away as Watari approached them, with the rest of the family plus the army duo trailing closely behind him.

Watari tilted his head in a curt greeting that the pastor politely returned. Their eyes sent clear messages to each other that outsiders could not possibly understand.

The pastor smiled kindly at the group, "Welcome to Santuario di San Vito and to San Vito lo Capo. Please have a pleasant stay, should you have any questions, feel free to ask around. We are all family here."

Shuan nodded and quickly translated his message to the other two.

Unable to verbally display her thanks, Mei smiled gratefully to him and presented a small bow of appreciation.

A polite woman, the pastor acknowledged. She seemed just fine.

He glanced over the arcobaleno present. They all bowed respectively in greeting.

The pastor gave Watari an approving look and a smile. "They are all just fine. No intentional harm with come to our little princess here."

Watari pursed his lips slightly, "Alright."

The rest of the group gave the old pair of men looks of wonder. What exactly did they do?

* * *

**Omake:**

**Father Nicolas**

Watari's visit to him was not unexpected. As soon as any newcomer entered his own territory, Watari often came to consult him for his opinions on the person.

He had deep faith in the pastor's ability to judge others' intents.

He watched curiously as not only three, but _five_ arcobaleno dispersed at the doors of the church, as Watari approached and greeted him respectfully, he sent the slightly older man a questioning look.

"I expected three, my old friend."

Watari sighed tiredly, "Yes, in fact, the Sun arcobaleno is also present in Capo at the moment with his Sky student."

He raised an eyebrow at him, "Another? How troublesome…"

"Indeed, it is."

Father Nicolas moved to sit down and gestured his old friend to join him. "Tell me, friend, what is it you require this time? I suppose you are not only here to ask of my opinion of your new resident arcobaleno."

He leaned back and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, a prominent line showing between his eyebrows. More so than usual at least.

"No, I am not. I am worried about the future, Father. I am starting to believe that fate has set my little flower up to die."

The pastor frowned. That wasn't good news at all.

"Please continue, good friend." He prodded gently.

Watari leaned forward and looked to the ground tiredly. His elbows resting on his knees, he looked completely defeated. "I believe that young Luculia is being set up to become the next Sky Arcobaleno and I know I cannot stop it."

Father Nicolas internally grimaced, what a terrible fate indeed.

Watari was not finished with his confession and Father Nicolas frowned deeply in sympathy as he listened.

"After all, I believe I was the one to send her to her fate and have allowed her to lead herself so deeply into it."

* * *

_**To Frozen teen: **_**Not quite! But we did see a little bit more of Reborn in this chapter. Though, with the state of Lu's flames _and_ with Watari's overly paranoid precautions it'd be rather difficult to kidnap her at all, really.**

**Next time: Ch 12 - The dreaded school year is approaching as the news of Kyoya's extended stay has reached their 'delicate' ears.**


	12. School Days

**Oof, I finally got around to writing this. To those that are still sticking around, sorry for the wait and please enjoy~**

* * *

Two years had passed full of training for the future. Kyoya noticeably found the physical side more to his liking than the academic side but complied to doing both under the stern looks of his mother. To be fair, almost no-one can say no to their asian parent. (*cough same)

"_Gather round, children!"_ Watari called into the training room. The trio quickly assembled before the man and sat quietly and obediently.

Mei, who was standing to the side with Fon just stared at the scene in bewilderment. She sighed longingly, _"I wish Kyoya listened to me like that."_

Verde narrowed his eyes at her dubiously, _"He **does** listen to you like that. He'd probably bark if you asked him to."_

Mei snorted, _"If he's anything like his father he'd likely revolt at that statement and I'd lose all hope of love and respect."_

Fon huffed in amusement, that was almost too true of a statement. With Kyoya's new obsession with the animal kingdom, _thanks to Verde and Lu's AP biology books,_ he would likely revolt to 'establish his dominance' as the king of his pack. Though it was unlikely that he would do anything drastic with his mother since Kyoya was still her son and held a lot of respect for her.

_"I have been recently notified that Kyoya-kun's father will be needing a significant amount of time to prepare their home in Namimori. He has informed me that it will take a least a year more, so we will be housing the two for another year or so."_

Mei blinked at the new news before frowning slightly, that didn't sound good at all. Kyoya was completely unfazed by the announcement, though. In fact, it seemed like it was almost pleasing news to him.

Fon snorted at the sight. No matter how much that kid denied it, he was 100% attached to this place and their resident cloud and sky.

Through long-time research, of the past month or so, so not really long time. Verde and Watari and had come to the conclusion that Lu had plenty enough flames to harmonize with several primary elements. They, of course, treasured their places as her actual guardians and first primary elements.

She had already harmonised with the little cloud during one of their adventures through Capo, likely that one they took to the beach and returned soaked to the bone but Kyoya, nor anyone else in the house, was the thing that worried them. Their main concern with this discovery was with her school peers because that was exactly what Watari had intended on doing, sending her to school.

_"Due to this fact, I am unwilling to allow young Kyoya-kun to fall behind in his studies and I believe he would not like to fall behind in his training either. Thus, I will be sending you three to a special academy."_

Lu tilted her head at that, _"We're going to school?"_

He chuckled, _"Yes, school." _Lu paled slightly.

_"You… don't intend on sending us to Dino's school…right?" _Watari smiled. Lu froze, oh she knew that look, he was totally sending them there.

She scrunched up her nose in displeasure, _"But the entrance exam!"_ The old man waved her worry off, _"You'll be just fine, all of you will be just fine. If you're worried about Mei-san, even if Kyoya somehow fails they will come after me rather than her. Kyoya will be registered under my name until the time comes where he is taken home to Namimori."_

Lu sighed in relief at that. That's good news… WAIT NO

She whined, _"That's not good news either!"_

Verde just snorted, "You'll be fine brat. If idiot-Dino can do it, you'll pass it with flying colours."

* * *

Lu glowered at the sheet of paper in her hands, how old did they think she was?! 5?

Oh wait, that actually wasn't too far off of a guess if they did but that's beside the point. You would think that an entrance exam for a prestigious mafia academy would be something along the lines of a confidence course and/or an academic exam based on age. Now, this! -insert Lu waving the offending paper around- was just an insult.

_Why_ did she have to write a letter to someone they loved to explain in detail how she would maim her enemy? Like what?!

Either way, she did what she was asked to do.

_Dear Watari,_

_I heavily dislike Mr. Suit guy that we met on our trip to Japan, he was really creepy and mean so I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you exactly how I plan to kill him so you can help ^^_

_No. 1: Loopy poison – This involved some sort of brain slowing poison that makes him act as if he was a talking drunk. I haven't looked into this yet, but I will soon. I just want him to spew all his secrets before he poofs. I was thinking of adding painful laxatives but I didn't want to have to clean up._

_No. 2: Actually killing him, maybe snapping his neck? I'm not all that interested in cleaning up blood either._

_No. 3: Experimentation *_* his body will be a prime testing specimen for the first few hours so we've got to use them wisely! Skin tests with poisons, bone poisoning, flesh dicing, flesh bombing . Sounds great to be completely honest!_

_Illusion torture might be a good idea to try before he dies though, maybe before stage 2 so we can test before and after using poisons and drugs. I heard electricity can make you smart? We could test that too!_

_Anyways, that is all, have a great day._

_Much loves,_

_Lu_

To her honest surprise and dread, the school had all the letters sent to their respective recipients. Verde had a good laugh at Watari's genuinely concerned expression before framing the letter up and hanging it in the kitchen for everyone to see. He would never let her live that down.

Fon had a hearty chortle when he read the newly framed letter, there was a little part of him that hoped she would go through with it though.

* * *

About a week after the entrance exams and tests, all three of them received their acceptance letters.

Kyoya had been assigned to class 3A for excellent combatant abilities and Lu and Shuan had both been assigned to class 5S for slightly morbid and concerning talents.

The classes in the school were hardly categorised by age but rather by scores. It usually happened that the younger kids were placed with the student's their age because that's just how it turned out, but occasionally there would be the odd case such as Luculia, who fit right into the 5th year concerning talents class.

Watari supposed it was because of her artwork of a letter about the Namimori Police Chief.

It was painfully obvious what the intended crowd was for this class when the pair first entered their homeroom.

"VOOOOOOOOOOIIII!" A loud voice boomed through the room, evidently making the walls tremble.

A boy with shoulder-length silver hair stood with a grin in the middle of the classroom with one foot on one of the chairs and the other on the centre desk.

He eyed the newcomers with an eerily ominous amount of excitement before waving his blade around like a maniac, "FIGHT ME, NEW BRATS. YOU BETTER BE A GOOD FIGHT."

Shuan wasn't impressed by the volume and honestly, it was getting on his nerves. The cloud-mist averted his eyes to the side, a flat look appeared on his expression, "Shut up, man. You're so loud."

The shark clearly wasn't having any of his attitude and jumped down to knock heads with Shuan with a grin. "I like your aura, new brat. Fight me!"

"No, thanks." Shuan pulled his head back from the other boy and turned away from him.

"OI FIGHT ME"

He cocked his head to the sky that was hovering around behind him, "…Lu, do you wanna chose a desk?"

"HEY, DON'T IGNORE ME"

She blinked at him.

"Oh, okay. Maybe one near the window, I wanna be able to look outside." She said as she walked past her new classmates and towards the empty desk.

The shark boy's face was getting slightly red from rage, "CLOUD BRAT, FIGHT ME—" his screeching when he was forced to duck under a very purple looking pie.

The object splat against the walls and evaporated into the vents leaving no evidence of the attack even occurring.

He snapped his head towards the offender, "POISON BITCH, WHAT THE FUCK?!"

The purple haired girl glowered at him. "Shut up, Squalo." She snapped at him before flicking her head away from him, her long hair fluttering dramatically and sauntering over to the new kids.

Lu, who had already seated herself at the second-from-the-back window seat, was happily looking at the pretty view of the school courtyards. Shuan took the seat beside her and the purple haired girl slid into the seat in front of her.

Shortly after, Squalo grumbled and sulked his way over to the seat next to the girl.

"I'm Bianchi," The purple haired girl greeted with a kind smile, turning her body to sit sideways in her seat.

Lu beamed at her, "I'm Luculia, it's nice to meet you Bianchi!"

A light blush dusted over her cheeks and the poison girl ruffled Lu's hair affectionately.

"You're so cute, Lulu~" she cooed at the sky.

Sparkles glittered around the pair as Lu relished in the affection she was receiving.

Shuan rolled his eyes and dropped his head into his arms, Squalo scoffed and leaned over the back of his chair.

The cloud-mist dragged an eye open to glance at the other boy, "Is your chick usually like this?"

Squalo let out an aggravated sigh. "She's not my chick, Bianchi's a bitch half the time but she's the only decent fighter in this whole fucking school."

Shuan lifted himself and rested his chin in his palm, "Ho~ Is that so?"

"Are you any good, new brat?" He gifted the shark boy with a sly smirk.

"I'd like to say that I'm rather proficient. What are you? Flame-wise."

Squalo looked oddly irritated by the question, "Rain…" he grumbled out.

The psychic boy raised an eyebrow but noticeably to Squalo, he didn't immediately judge him for the contrast between his personality and his flame.

"Inversed?" The boy inquired curiously.

"Surprisingly classical."

"I see."

When the bell rang, their homeroom teacher, who honestly looked he really didn't want to be there, showed up and chucked his suitcase in the corner of his desk. He was a young man that looked like he had intended on being a successful hitman but ultimately ended up turning to this job. His hair was half white and half brown and he looked like he half knew what he was doing.

"Alright, brats! We have two new pain in the asses joining your class for insane idiots."

He pulled the paper from the edge of his desk to read out the names, "Luculia— no last name, and Shuan— also no last name, introduce yourselves. Honestly, take as long as you want because no-one listens to class half the time so this one being interrupted slightly won't make much of a difference."

Luculia's shoulder sagged, this wasn't what she was expecting when Watari said she was going to attend school. He said it'd be fun and that I'd learn plenty but with how well it had been going so far, she probably wasn't going to learn _anything_.

"Uh... I'm Luculia," she started quietly, dragging several pairs of eyes to her position. "I'm 9-years-old, sky flame and I like science."

The teacher, who had already sat himself at his desk, raised an eyebrow at the girl. "A sky in the insane class? How interesting… Alright, next kid."

Shuan looked completely and utterly bored, his eyes were half open and he looked like he was about ready to drop dead. "Shuan, 13, Cloud."

Their homeroom teacher snapped the roll book, that he had apparently filled in during their introductions, closed with a loud snap and turned to them with a chill grin. "Great, I think I'm going to hate you both as much as the rest of this class. You may call me Ganauche, Sir, Mr. Ganauche, Signore Ganauche, Ganauche-sama or whatever floats your boast, I'm here purely because I lost a round of rock, paper, scissors. Please enjoy your stay."

Shuan narrowed his eyes at their teacher, he seemed oddly familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. It irritated him slightly when the man, winked at his sky's sulking face and brightened up her expression before starting the class. He was a _threat._

The man noticed the boy's not-at-all discrete glare that he was pressing into his skull and gifted him with a teasing look as he explained the fundamental laws of gun physics to the class.

Yeah, Shuan really didn't like him much at all.

* * *

Ganauche glanced at his wristwatch then to the clock and hummed, "Alrighty, brats. There's like 2 minutes till lunch so like, sit tight or start eating or whatever. Just don't leave the room till the bell goes."

A chorus of "Ok"s rang through the room followed by several sounds of students rummaging through their bags or chairs dragging across the floor as kids went to gather around their friends.

Lu pulled out the cute little packed lunch that Watari had made for her and the whole class gaped at her food as the smell spread through the room. Even Ganauche made his way over to the little sky to see what she was eating.

She had a three-layered bento box that Verde had gifted her in congratulations for passing the entrance exam. It had the best thermal capacity of any lunch box out there and Lu adored it to bits.

"Dayum, kid. That looks good."

Lu beamed at her teacher, "I know right! Watari made the food and Verde made the box for me, it's basically freshly cooked!"

The small frown that split across his face briefly, went unnoticed by the sky. Watari and Verde were collaborating research and they took in a baby-sky? Ganauche held in a grimace, this little sky was just so…so bright, pure and innocent. She didn't deserve anything that was coming her way…

Ganauche knew what would happen if he reported his findings to higher powers. There would be no way that it would end out remotely decent for the girl and she would even potentially have assassins on her tail.

For a few moments, he shamefully doubted the legitimacy of his own sky. He was having second thoughts about following his orders, it felt disgusting just knowing that he was considering it.

He would simply keep his mouth shut and claim ignorance.

He shook it off quickly and masked his thought with a kind smile. Luculia's bright smile had wavered in concern but she knew to keep up appearances.

"You're a very lucky girl, little missy. Make sure to treasure them, okay?"

She blinked at him owlishly in wonder but nodded, a small gentle smile formed on her face. "Okay, I'll be sure to do that."

He tousled her hair briefly as the bell went off and wandered over to his desk to grab his bag. The teacher saluted the class, "Adieu, my precious babies!" he exclaimed dramatically.

A significant portion of the class rolled their eyes and Squalo snorted, "Fuck off well, lighting ass!"

"Oh, you melt my heart, Squalo. Will do~"

* * *

When Bianchi suggested to the other three of their unofficial friend group that they should go out and find a nicer place to eat outside, they were quick to agree, and Lu packed her lunch back up.

Shuan had insisted in the morning that he wanted to buy lunch at school and that he would be fine. So, Watari left the boy to his own devices.

Squalo said he needed to grab something from the cafeteria too so he ended up dragging his new cloud friend along. Bianchi dismissed them easily, "We'll go take over the greenhouse for lunch, see you then~"

Shuan spared her a brief nod before following after the wayward rain that had given her no acknowledgement.

Bianchi linked her arms with the younger girl, "Shall we go~?" Lu perked up.

"Yeah, sure!"

The pair soon approached the entrance to the greenhouse, and it was _massive. _The walls were fully paned with glass and flowers, vines and trees filled the structure with natural beauty.

There was a direct path that leads to a coffee table surrounded by lounge chairs and sofas located in the direct centre of the glass building.

Lu gapes at her surroundings in awe and Bianchi lead her gently through to the table.

"Welcome to the 5S greenhouse, it belongs to us purely because we beat up all the seniors that tried to take it from us. This place is like the ideal tea-time place, so much that it's reserved for those with high combat ranks."

The older girl sauntered up to a hidden compartment that was blended into the surrounding by hiding behind a net of vines. Pulling it open, Lu saw that it was actually a mini-bar, one for cold drinks and another that was designed for hot drinks, there was a pantry right next to it that held snacks too.

"Woah, cool!" Bianchi gave the girl a close-eyed smile and pulled out two bottles of juice. "It'd be cooler if Ganauche let me put anything in there but he continues to insist that I don't."

She sighed dramatically, "Such a cruel soul!"

Luculia laughed and sat on one of the chairs, they were about as comfortable as they looked (i.e. _heavenly_).

Bianchi slid the girl a bottle of juice and sat next to her as Lu unpacked her lunch once more.

When she took her first bite, she let out a muffled squeal of joy. She couldn't help it, it was so yummy!

Her friend eyed her curiously and Lu scooped some out for her. The girl's flames, hovering curiously around her own but not touching, it was as if she was just observing.

"Wanna try?" she offered. Bianchi laughed sheepishly for staring, "If it's okay…"

Luculia sent her a comforting smile, "Of course it's okay! Say aaahn~"

Bianchi blushed but did as she was told. The flavours burst in her mouth and she almost moaned in pleasure.

"That's so good!" she complimented.

The sky grinned, "Right? Watari is the best chef ever!"

Sounds of the glass front doors opening attracted the pair's attention. It wasn't the pair of boys they were expecting surprisingly, but rather Ganauche, their weird teacher.

The man flinched when he walked through the doors, but it was barely noticeable under his professional-level ability to control his poker face. The flush of sky flames that fluttered around the building was insanely pure and giant in terms of pure volume. He wondered how he, nor any other of his students didn't feel any of it in the classroom.

He glanced over at the pair of girls that were watching him curiously when he entered their lunch spot. He knew that Bianchi was a natural classic storm, she should have been crushed by the sky attraction for being so close to the new girl, yet it was noticeable that she wasn't affected in the least.

The lightning wandered up and past the pair towards the mini-bar. He pulled it open and eyed in contents suspiciously before pulling out a can of hot milk tea.

"You didn't do anything to the food, right Bianchi?"

She rolled her eyes, "I didn't do anything, I swear upon my newly found love for Lulu."

He stood up and dropped himself down on a chair with a sigh, "I don't know how deep your love can get after half a day of class."

"Love knows no boundaries."

The teacher opened his drink and inspected it briefly before taking a sip. "…right."

Lu laughed nervously, "So… what brings you here. Mr. Ganauche?"

Their homeroom teacher sucked his flames in tightly packed. Typically, skies were no threat to him since he already had a sky of his own. Yet, the baby-sky beside him made him slightly wary with how welcoming and influencing her flames felt.

It must be wearing away that was eating at his bond with his sky.

Bianchi stole another bite from the sky's lunch and cracked a smile at her. "Don't worry 'bout Ganauche, he's chill. As the homeroom teacher of the top combat students, he's allowed in here."

The man in question nodded along to her explanation, "That, and the fact that this place is actually really peaceful in contrast to the god-awful staff room."

When the boys finally arrived, the little sky's flames disappeared once more. The feeling startled both Ganauche and Bianchi but not Squalo. Ganauche noted that this place likely had flame resistant walls such that the boy didn't feel anything before he followed the other new kid into the glass structure.

"VOI GANAUCHE! YOU DIDN'T DRINK MY SHIT RIGHT?"

The lightning hummed in amusement, "But of course not, Squalo. That'd be disgusting."

Squalo stormed past Shuan and straight to the heated compartment behind the little sky. He pulled it open and growled, "You did drink it, what the fuck?!"

Ganauche chuckled, "I didn't, really. It's at the bottom."

After a few moments, he finally found it and pulled it out with an angry huff. "Geez. Oi, Cloud-mist!"

Shuan, who had already taken a seat and had started eating, glanced at Squalo with a flat look.

"What do you want, Rain shark?"

Squalo lobbed a drink to him, coffee, nice.

"Oh, thanks."

The shark boy made his way over to the seat next to Shuan and sunk himself into the comfortable cushions.

An unusual silence filled the air as the group silently ate. Occasionally little bites of Lu's generously sized lunch was kidnapped but she honestly didn't mind at all, it was unlikely that she would be able to finish the whole thing herself anyway.

The chirping of birds and crickets filled the empty silence and created a very peaceful air that was momentarily broken.

Ganauche hummed in contemplation, attracting the attention of the four students that sat around him. He wasn't sure how they would react to him asking questions but he was positive that as soon as they left class for the day he would have no chance of knowing or understanding _anything_ in terms of the little sky that recently joined his class.

Watari would make sure of it and Ganauche couldn't blame him for it either.

"…your flames, Luculia," he started slowly. Shuan immediately tensed, his flames hovering dangerously around him should he need to attack. His efficiency with mist flames also pouring through his caution and agitation.

Ganauche chose not to comment on it.

The sky bit her lip, she knew she wasn't meant to talk about her flames to other people that she wasn't sure wouldn't turn it against her.

"I understand that Shuan is suppressing them for you but you'll need to develop another way to do it yourself before it gets any worse."

She gulped stiffly but nodded.

Squalo narrowed his eyes in question, "What are you on about?"

Shuan grimaced but it really was unfair to the rain as the only one in the group that didn't know.

"Lu has a rather large amount of potent sky flames and I've been suppressing for her. I… was careless and left her alone, her flames unravelled and it was unfortunately fortunate that Ganauche was the only one other than Bianchi that felt it."

The rain looked slightly surprised but had a look of understanding written within his eyes.

"Oh, I did feel that." He admitted.

Heads shot towards him, "I've always been good at using my senses and I brushed it off as her being a friendly soul or some shit."

Ganauche let out a shaky breath when Squalo snapped his attention towards the teacher.

"You won't report this right?" The rain asked seriously. Ganauche hesitated, it was so very fucking difficult to deny one's own sky yet here he was considering doing it. It caused such a myriad of mixed feelings to bubble under his skin.

"I… won't." he barely managed to say between gritted teeth.

Nothing within Luculia screamed danger with her teacher, nothing spoke of lies or of trickery either. She fully believed him.

"Thank you, Ganauche-sensei…" she mumbled out quietly.

The normally eccentric man grinned at her, compressing the spiritual pain he was feeling behind his eyes.

"It's no problem, little missy."

It pained him so much to even mentally admit that he wished that he hadn't already been harmonized with a sky. Even though he knew that Verde was her official primary, he couldn't help but yearn for the feeling of comfort and safety that her flames offered.

It was a feeling that he recognised that his own sky provided him long ago.

He clenched his teeth.

Ganauche didn't know how he was going to live with himself.

* * *

**Omake: Gifts from Shuan**

The trinkets that Shuan had purchased by Luculia's initial request was not forgotten by them but Shuan just didn't know how to go about giving presents to people without it being weird.

That night after they returned home from mass, he sat on his bed and just stared at the pieces of jewellery that sat in the palm of his hand.

He sighed, what to do, what to do.

A knock sounded from his bedroom door and he quickly shoved the gifts into the drawer of his bedside table.

"Come in," he called to the person on the other side.

Lu poked her head into the room with Kyoya poking his head over her shoulder from his position on her back. She smiled at him in greeting, "What's up, Shuan?"

"I should be the one asking you both that. You _are _the ones that are in _my_ bedroom at the moment."

She dropped a sheepish laugh, "Ehehe… right, right_. I was just showing Kyo-chan around the places he hadn't seen yet, right, Kyo-chan?_"

The boy bobbed his head in silent agreement.

"Ahh… I see." He looked around to try and distract himself from the awkward silence.

"Well… that's all so we'll be going. Sorry for bothering you, Shuan!" He waved her off but froze mid-action.

"Oh, wait a sec." He stood to retrieve the trinkets from his side table and walked over to the pair. Kyoya was grumbling about something along the lines of learning Italian because it was annoying to not be able to understand.

_"Here you go,"_ Shuan said awkwardly as he dangled the fish hook necklace in front of the younger cloud. Kyoya's eyes widened and even glimmered subtly in joy when the older boy dropped it into his hands.

Lu petted him on the head, _"Now, say thank you, Kyo-chan."_

The prideful boy pursed his lips before muttering out a quick thanks. It wasn't much to the regular person but for Kyoya it was an extremely meaningful gesture.

The cloud-mist had traces of pink dusting over his cheeks and he averted his eyes to the side when he shoved the sea-horse hairpin into her hand. "That one's for you, I—uh will give Mei-san her one later…"

Lu's eyes _sparkled_ in delight, she was basically jumping for joy in her shoes. "I love it, Shuan! Thank you so much~"

He glanced over her for a moment before averting his eyes once more and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah, it's no problem."

When they left, Kyoya's judging and teasing eyes was the thing that really stuck in his mind. Fudge, he swore that he would never live that stutter down.


	13. Troubled Souls

**I'm happy to see that you're enjoying! I hope I can keep my writing up to standard hahaha****— **

**Thanks especially to _ACasualPotato _and _yupino _for dropping reviews!**

* * *

On the way home from school that day, Shuan reported to Watari about what had happened and as Ganauche had expected, Watari had grown suspicious of him. But with Lu's insistence of the lightning's innocence, he allowed them to still attend school given proper parameters were set up.

In particular, that meant that Cosmo was assigned to be her loving back-up bodyguard which in a sense wasn't that bad at all.

She explained _everything_ to her sun in utmost detail. What Ganauche had told her, how he had suggested for her to take proper measurements for her flames and how he swore that he wouldn't report anything back and that her intuition told her that he was being genuine.

She stood firm in her opinion that she would _not_ let him suffer alone.

Watari almost felt sympathetic to the lightning's position. He supposed it was almost his fault for the younger man's current issue but in reality, Vongola Nono just needed to build a bridge and get over it.

If Ganauche could evidently feel the sky attraction effects from Luculia, that signalled a great issue that would deeply affect the lightning. Only strained or undeveloped sky bonds allowed for another sky to have even the smallest effect on a primary element, it spoke wonders about the potential internal conflict that was occurring within the Vongola main family.

Verde's attention clung onto the other lightning's warnings about his sky's rambunctious flames and he took it very, very seriously. His mind immediately begun to run through any possibilities of a piece of technology to implement something along the suggested lines of flame compression, but the concept was proving extremely difficult.

So far, the only known way to suppress it was with a powerful mist or a cloud-mist such as Shuan. However, as much as he wanted to throw everything out of the way to work on the project, he still needed to live. He already had several projects and contracts lined up to fill several months and potentially years of full-time work so it was almost impossible to leave enough time a run his head into it.

It was not possible for them to constantly have a powerful mist with their sky. Both Shuan and Viper both had their own lives to live and their own priorities to care for, it was unreasonable to even suggest something that if he had the ability to, he wouldn't even be able to do it himself.

For the mean-time and during school, Shuan was more than willing to stay by his sky's side as much as possible. As a mist, a cloud-mist, it was nearly impossible for the school to forcibly strip him away from the sky since the school would need to bypass their disciplinary rules in order to do so, but everyone knew that they never would or risk causing a riot.

The boy would need to remain extra careful as the undeveloped bonds with Squalo and Bianchi were as far as they wanted to go ideally.

No matter how much they knew Luculia loved making friends, they would almost anything to prevent her from harmonizing with someone she might regret.

* * *

Eating his dinner in peace was proving terribly difficult for Ganauche, the air was tense and not like a comforting family dinner should be. Nono's intuition wasn't helping his case either, it was definitely making it worse.

At this point, the 9th generation lightning was eating through gritted teeth and swallowing stiffly. His meal was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second.

"So, Ganauche, how has your time as a teacher been treating you?" the sky asked, his voice sounded much too smooth and pleasant for Ganauche's liking, even though he knew it was his internal conflicts that were influencing his current bias. The lightning strained a smile back.

"Excellent, Nono. It had been quite the experience teaching such a rowdy class of children, it's rather taxing, you see."

An entertained smirk slid through Coyote's typical frowning mask. Ganauche almost let a growl slip from him. Coyote was the initial reason why he was stuck in that teaching job in the first place, having accepted the suggestion from the principal but being unable to complete it himself.

The Vongola sky laced his fingers together in front of his chin, his eyes filled with ominous curiosity. "I… see. You just seem rather stressed, has anything interesting happened recently…?"

It took all the willpower in his body to not flinch and grimace at the question. He so desperately never wanted to hear those words leave that man's mouth.

"Not at all, Nono. It's just been an exhausting day." A complete and blatant lie on his part, he wanted to punch himself at how terrible he was acting whilst trying to pull off that lie.

There was almost no possible scenario where someone as young as his new little sky student would believe him, let alone the Vongola sky who had hyper fucking intuition. He could feel his demise approaching rapidly.

But, to his surprise, the man seemed fully convinced with his reasoning and dropped the topic altogether. No suspicion, no questioning glances, no nothing. They all just believed him like that.

He was in disbelief but knew better than to waste the second chance that shined upon him.

It all made sense when the intimidating man known as Croquant Bouche approached him after everyone split ways after the meal.

The man followed him silently as Ganauche made his way back to the safety of his own office. Letting the mist in, he closed the doors behind and ran a thin current of electricity through the walls.

Shutting down and restarting any bugs or cameras was a simple task for a powerful lightning such as himself.

The tanned older man took long strides into the office before setting himself down on one of the chairs.

"You need to work on your lying abilities, Ganauche." He informed the younger man, shortly.

Ganauche redirected his gaze downwards and raised a hand to massage the area between his eyebrows, "I know." He replied noticeably frustrated.

He paced for a few moments before dropped his body into his desk chair with an aggravated sigh.

The room was momentarily coated in a rather dense layer of mist flames.

"No-one outside of this room will hear you speak, now explain to me what it is that has you so bothered that you are lying to Nono."

Croquant Bouche noted the young man's sallow features, it was disturbing to see such a typically cheerful soul so stressed and worn out.

"I received two new students today," he explained tiredly. The mist raised an eyebrow but signalled him to continue with a slow nod. "A 9-year-old sky and an 13-year old cloud-mist, both are Watari's wards."

The older man shuffled his body into a more comfortable position, "Why are you so concerned about keeping this from Nono, exactly?"

"The girl's flames are unbelievably potent without her cloud-mist companion compressing them for her. You know how Nono feels about Watari and his goals, if I spoke, it would only be a matter of time before I will be attending that child's funeral."

"Nono has refrained from bringing back the issues he has with Watari, why would he chose to pursue it now if he—" Ganauche lowered his eyes to his desk, tracing along the wood patterns with his gaze.

Croquant Bouche narrowed his eyes, "He's collaborated again, hasn't he?"

Ganauche nodded stiffly. "Nono will not be pleased and his long-term grudge will begin to arise once more."

"Who is it? Innocenti? Estraneo? Bovino?"

"No, it's Verde, a potent sky and a double primary cloud-mist."

This time it was the mist that released the aggravated sigh, they both hated this situation and despised Nono's ability to hold a grudge even more.

It has been 40 fucking years since Watari showed him up with his research and equipment. The man hadn't done nearly as much as the enemy famiglia they current had on the run against them, and Timoteo barely glanced their way.

So what if these children had unusually powerful flames or were unnaturally smart? So what if Watari took them in and took care of them? It was the other man's business and they shouldn't even bat an eye at it yet Nono would likely take it as a threat, as if Watari was building machines out of those children to get at him.

"Would I be able to meet this young sky?" The mist inquired.

Ganauche shook his head, "Ideally, no. Honestly, I don't know if the kid will even return to class tomorrow after Watari hears that I'm her teacher. He's a reasonable man, I doubt he'd risk putting them in any real danger."

The 9th generation Vongola mist stood up and walked to the door.

"I will see you during your lunch break tomorrow at the Mafia Academy, Ganauche."

The lightning spluttered leaving the mist sprouting an amused smirk at his regular temperament. "I went through the trouble of concealing you from Nono once and I have no intention of chucking my efforts out of the window so soon. My lips are sealed."

The man then promptly exited the room, the mist reinforcements that coated the walls disappearing shortly after.

Ganauche dropped against the back of his chair. "Fuck…" he groaned quietly to himself.

He had seen the light of hope, thank god for sharp mists. He was almost willing to kiss that 60-year-old man.

_Almost _but not quite because just… no.

* * *

Ganauche went into work early that next morning and ended up preparing his whole day of teachings for his class _in class, _both before and while the students started to pour in through the classroom doors.

Squalo had always been an early riser and was the first student to arrive and enter the classroom. Several other students followed suit after he went in as the first student.

It was an odd habit, but it happened a lot. Students would arrive early but not attempt to enter the classroom until the bell rang or another student entered first. It was probably some sort of student rule he didn't know about or something.

"VOIIIIIII!"

"Ah— Squalo, Good morning." The lightning greeted with a pleasant smile, placing his pen down onto the desk.

The shark boy narrowed his eyes at the teacher suspiciously, "Why do you seem so stressed, lightning ass?"

"…I seem stressed?"

That wasn't a good sign at all if Squalo could see it plainly on his face. He saw Nono this morning as well...

Squalo huffed and sat himself in the desk closest to the teacher's desk.

"Yeah, no shit. You look like hell and I don't just mean your face this time."

The teacher breathed out heavily and leaned his elbow on the wooden desk, "Yeah, I'm a little worried that the little missy won't come back to class." He admitted briefly. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't _everything _that was digging into his conscience.

"Sky bunny will come back, she clearly likes you and adores Bianchi to a fault. With her face, I doubt she couldn't convince almost anyone to let her come back."

"—_Good morning~!"_ Lu singsonged as she swung to classroom door open and skipped her way inside with Shuan trailing along closely behind with his hands in his pockets.

Squalo grinned, "Speak of the fucking devil. Mornin' sky bunny, cloud-ass."

"Morning," Shuan greeted tiredly. He was not a morning person in the least, unlike the cheerful sky next to him that was happy 24/7. She was probably a morning _and_ a night person.

Ganauche smiled fondly at the group as Bianchi arrived and glomped their resident sky from behind causing the pair to giggle in amusement.

The 9th generation lightning was pleasantly surprised when the little sky gave him a 'discrete' thumbs up in hopes of lightening his spirits. The grin that he shot back to her was both appreciative and held completely genuine happiness in it.

He dragged himself to a stand after taking a quick glance at the clock then proceeded to shoo the kids away, "Get to your seats, brats. Class is starting in 5."

He let out a satisfying groan as he stretched his muscles out whilst a series of footsteps clicked against the flooring to get to their seats before the bell rang.

"Alrighty, minions. You ready to spend the next few hours learning about military strategies and how _not _to get arrested?"

The resonating sounds of groans, "Noooo"s and even that one thump that sounded when a kid (Shuan) dropped his forehead on his desk, was music to his ears.

This was the pure reason why teaching these little shits was fun.

* * *

When the bell for break went off, all four of the kids bolted out of the classroom doors leaving the other students and Ganauche slightly stunned.

It took the teacher a few moments to recompose himself before he stuck his head out into the hallway, "Brats, don't run in the hallway!" he scolded after their fading forms.

"Sorry, Sensei!" Luculia called back as Squalo wrenched open one of the windows and leapt out. The other three followed shortly after.

Ganauche blanched and stuck his head out the window to call after them, "Are you kids insane?! This is the third floor!"

By that point, the group was barely out of hearing range, but by the cheeky grins that a couple of them shot back at him, he was positive that they had heard him anyway.

He rolled his eyes, they could deal with themselves and he had a mist he needed to locate.

As per his usual routine, Ganauche collected up his papers and returned to the staff room to submit his reports and files. Croquant Bouche was nowhere to be seen during the long ass process of doing so and the lightning found himself slightly concerned at the whereabouts of the wayward mist.

The kids, however, were having the opposite problem.

After bolting to the cafeteria to get first dibs on the newly released and limited-in-number macaron boxes, the group made their way to the greenhouse to relax with their newly acquired sweets.

Out of habit, when she opened the door, Lu poked her head in first to check if anyone was there. Much to her own concern, there was someone there sitting on Ganauche's chair, sipping on some sort of drink.

The man was tan, buff and honestly, quite the scary looking person. She had no intention of going to talk to him first, no, nuh uh.

Seeing as the girl was hesitating, Bianchi popped her head into the greenhouse directly above Luculia, with her chin barely hovering over the younger girl's head.

Lu tilted her head upwards, "Do you know him?" she whispered to the purple haired girl.

"No, I've never seen him before. I wonder if he's a new teacher or something."

Squalo was beginning to get irritated with how much delaying the two girls were doing, "Oi, what the fuck is taking so long?!" he yelled, the veins in his temple bulging.

Bianchi signalled the boys over and gestured for them to look inside.

Squalo poked his head through the ajar door above Bianchi's own and Shuan ended up having to step on the edge of the long pot planter to stick his head above the shark's.

"Who the fuck is that?" Squalo asked no-one in particular.

Shuan hummed, "Looks like the 9th generation Vongola mist, to me."

The trio all shot their heads up to look at him in surprise and Lu laughed nervously, "Ehehe... maybe we should wait for Sensei?"

They pulled back their heads one by one from top to bottom and Lu closed the door.

"Probably smart." The cloud-mist agreed as they stretched out their backs having been bent over for an uncomfortable amount of time.

"But what do we do now?" Lu asked with a slight whine in her tone.

Squalo shrugged, "We could go bug Bianchi's kid brother."

That raised a few eyebrows.

"You have a kid brother?" Lu inquired with excitement and glee. She loved kids, despite being a kid herself. Bianchi simply nodded with a fond smile, "Father always asks me to cook for him too. He's quite adorable."

Squalo paled. "Wait, you never said you were actually torturing the poor kid!"

Her face held genuine confusion, "But I'm not?"

"Oh—oh, dear. Poor squid kid."

Lu clapped lightly with a bright smile, "That's settled then. We can visit Kyo-chan while we're at it too!"

The group then proceeded to divert their path from the greenhouse back to the primary school building.

The academy taught children from ages 5/6 to 18, so from the beginning of primary school to the end to high school but more often than not, kids would leave their schooling after middle school and move to tutors or apprenticeships.

The greenhouse was a location based in the primary and middle school grounds whilst the high school had its own facilities. As the top-ranked fighter of the middle school, Squalo took full reign over the greenhouse for himself and his friends. With Bianchi being in the second rank and with their history of defeating even several high schoolers, no-one even had the thought of fighting for the lunch spot.

Lu held onto the carton of macarons and skipped along the path ahead of the group. Bianchi initially wanted to hold it but with a bit of arguing and wrangling from Squalo, she agreed to give them to Luculia.

Squalo just didn't want to die from any kind of food poisoning.

Class 5S was a first-year middle school class so this was the first time that Lu and Shuan had visited the primary building.

Luculia was basically in heaven with how many adorable students littered the hallways.

"—you know, Kyoya isn't going to be inside the building. He's borderline allergic to people."

She rolled her eyes at the cloud, "I know but it doesn't hurt to enjoy the view since we're going to meet Bianchi's little brother too!"

"…I suppose so."

"Over there!" Bianchi exclaimed with a finger raised to point at a classroom to their left. A small silver haired boy with similar facial features to the older girl stood (Jung)shook in the doorway of his classroom.

He looked slightly terrified at the sight of his sister but breathed out in relief when he saw that she wasn't alone. He doubted that she'd kill him in front of her friends…right?

"Hayato~" The girl sang as she skipped over to the boy. She wrapped her arms around his body in a gentle hug before leading his stiff form out towards her friends. Several of his classmates watched the scene with curiosity.

"These are my new friends, Lulu and Shuan." She introduced, gesturing to the pair. The pair gave the boy casual waves to which he returned with a stiff nod. "Oh, there's also sharky but you've met him already." The rain rolled his eyes as the girl continued. "We brought some sweets to eat and came to get you so we could share~"

He went visibly rigid and several drops of nervous sweat appeared across his skin. "You didn't—"

"Nah," Squalo interrupted, "The second she even thinks of touching the food we're gonna eat is when she has to forget all about her 'love is everything' crap which is never going to happen."

Hayato's shoulders sagged in relief, "Thank goodness, some of you are reasonable."

Luculia gestured him to follow them as Squalo made his way out of the building first without a word. "We'll go grab Kyo-chan then we can go back to the greenhouse. Sensei should be there by now."

As per Shuan's prediction, Kyoya was napping away in a tree far from the chaotic noise of the other students. The group gathered around the base of the tree and stared up at the branch that he was lying on.

The sky passed the box of sweets to Shuan before cupping her hands around her mouth, _"Kyo-chan, we have sweets!"_

The boy opened his eyes at the familiar fluent Japanese. He craned his neck to glance down at her, _"Nee-san."_ He greeted the girl briefly before rolling his body off the branch and gracefully landing on his feet.

He glanced at the group in distaste, _"Why are you crowding?"_

"_Why are we speaking in Japanese when we're in Italy?" _The smaller silver-haired boy snarked back.

Kyoya sent him a disapproving look but decided to let him off this time because he was still a growing small animal.

Lu smiled at the boys. "Kyo-chan is Japanese-Chinese and is still practising his Italian," she tousled the boy's black hair, "He's doing very well though, he can understand and speak plenty already."

The girl gestured to the group, "_—And these guys are my friends, Kyo-chan. We have a really nice place to eat so we came to invite you to eat these limited-edition sweets."_

"Are they herbivores?" he asked in well-spoken but accented Italian.

Shuan dropped an arm over Squalo's shoulder, "This one's a shark and has the number one combat rank in the academy, so no, he eats meat."

Kyoya's eyes glimmered in interest, "Fight me."

Squalo grinned.

"It'd be my fucking pleasure, cloud-brat."

* * *

The trip back to the greenhouse was very short. Squalo had the uncanny ability to make their resident clouds actually talk and was currently discussing their fighting schedules so they could spar.

Bianchi was noticeably keen to join to party as well but Hayato seemed to not be too into it. When Lu inquired as to _why_ he replied that he hadn't started training yet and that he didn't want to get beat down one-sidedly.

When his confession left his lips, he received a few questioning looks and some were even sent to his sister. He quickly remedied the confusion as they approached the large glass structure.

"I've just been more academically inclined so I haven't had the chance to find a weapon I want to learn."

The sharky boy gifted him with a signature grin as he walked into the building, "Don't worry squid kid, a few training sessions with us will get you to the top of your bracket in no time. Easy fucking peasy, all the brats are weak as fuck."

Hayato smiled in appreciation briefly before it dropped when he realised what he'd just been called. His face flushed red, "Who're you calling squid kid, shark ass?!"

"Who're you calling shark ass, squid kid?!" he shot back.

Shuan unhelpfully raised his hand. "I do it too, squid kid. Don't worry 'bout it."

"Oi, don't call me that!" both silver heads yelled at the blonde.

A hearty chortle was heard from further inside the greenhouse, "So that's where you kids were. I was wondering how you didn't get here before I did, seeing as you bolted from the classroom on the bell and jumped out of a third-floor window just to get out first."

The younger kids blanched at the four.

"You _what?_" Kyoya shot out.

They shrugged in sync and Shuan lifted the double box of macarons they managed to secure to show evidence of their success.

"We got the goods though so it's _all goods_."

"Shut the fuck up, cloud-ass. That wasn't even good."

Ganauche snorted, "Come on then. Hurry up and share the sweets with this poor teacher of yours."

The mysterious, silent old man was still there even with Ganauche present, so the group assumed that they were at least friendly acquaintances. Not that Ganauche would let anything bad happen to them anyway.

Shuan placed the boxes on the table and all the other three, sans Luculia, grabbed drinks for themselves and their subsequent mini-elements.

Lu eyed the tanned man curiously and he simply stared directly back into her eyes. Despite how scary he looked, she felt as if it was polite courtesy to introduce herself to the newcomer.

She smiled brightly and pointed to herself, "I'm Luculia!" she introduced, "What's your name?"

Croquant Bouche observed the girl and her flames for a few moments. There was definitely a thick layer of mist flames around the girl, so much that it could easily be passed off as the girl being a mist user herself. The boy that was providing the compression was a cloud-mist and was cleverly utilising the propagating properties of his clouds to withhold however large of a volume of flames for the girl, an interesting and unusual sight to behold.

"Croquant Bouche." He replied shortly. She beamed at him, "It's nice to meet you, sir!"

He gifted the young girl with a curt nod before she hopped along to get a drink for herself.

The mist turned to Ganauche, "Cute kid." He admitted with his usual deep and slightly gruffly voice.

The teacher grinned, "Right?" he scooted over and patted the open space beside him for the girl to sit when she returned and found all the chairs occupied.

"We'll need to get more seats if you keep bringing along more people." He informed the group with teasing eyes, "It's been so long since I've seen the poison-shark duo speak with anyone without killing them… your favourite teacher is so proud~"

Squalo rolled his eyes, "You're our only teacher, lightning ass."

"Exactly~"

Croquant Bouche tapped on the armrest of his seat to interrupt them and gather attention.

Shuan narrowed his eyes at the mist, having finally found the opportunity to speak up. "Vongola 9th generation Mist guardian, Croquant Bouche. What business do you have coming here?"

The significantly older mist glanced over the protective boy, likely the one producing the flame compression. "Release your sky's flames, boy." He demanded shortly, "That is what I currently wish for in terms of business."

Shuan hissed at him territorially before turning to glare at their homeroom teacher. "You promised you wouldn't report it!"

Ganauche clenched his jaw. "I didn't report it. Croquant Bouche covered for my fuck up, and as a child that seems to know so much about the mafia, I'm sure you've heard of the Vongola Intuition. It's nearly impossible to bypass as a lightning."

The boy growled and crossed his arms over his chest in anger and defeat.

Lu wrinkled her nose, "Why is it so necessary to hide me from your boss? If he's your sky then he should be your friend and trust you, right?"

Ganauche barely concealed a violent flinch and the Vongola mist frowned, his facial features tensing up.

"Not everyone has a picture-perfect relationship with their skies, young one."

She lowered her eyes to her lap, "…oh, sorry."

The rest of the children watched the scene silently, feeling as if it wasn't their place to speak up let alone listen.

"If your bond with the Vongola Nono is so bad, then why stay?" Shuan questioned.

It was a legitimate question; however intrusive it was.

Ganauche smiled weakly, "There are some things you simply cannot escape." He reasoned, "Leaving the mafia would be one, leaving the Vongola without assassins on your head for several hundred-thousand euro bounties, would be another."

"This place could be bugged, why are you even talking in here? A glass structure where people from the outside could just read your lips?" Squalo cut in with a grumble.

"We are not irresponsible, boy. Mist flames have several uses," Croquant Bouche explained, "One of the most commonly used, would be illusions. No-one that I do not believe should have the right to will be able to see anyone within this structure. This is also the most isolated place I would have been able to meet with any of Watari's wards outside of suspicion."

"Is that why we could see you when we came by earlier?" The mist nodded slowly in response to the question.

The little sky sighed, "...why is this such a big deal? Why couldn't we just go to school in peace?" Lu asked slowly.

The older mist leaned back in his seat and locked the girl in eye contact for a brief second before she averted her gaze uncomfortably. "Vongola Nono has a history with your Watari to the point that he would easily use a large portion of his extensive bank to wipe you kids out in pure rage-influenced assumptions. You both have powerful flames and bot Watari and Verde are scientific geniuses, Nono would immediately assume Watari was out to get him. We would be apart of the operation as his guardians no matter what as well."

Ganauche nodded grimly but in agreement, "It was... unfortunate and fortunate in its own right that _I_ was your teacher. If it was Coyote, you would not currently be breathing but if it was neither of us, you would be living a normal mafia student life. I'd also personally like to stay away from being ordered to murder innocent children if possible."

Kyoya huffed and hopped off the chair to open the box of sweets he was promised. Lu moved to help him when she noticed he was struggling.

As he picked one out and crawled back onto his seat, she opened the other box as well and pressed the cover back so the treats would be easily accessible.

She gifted the group with a closed eye smile, a small air of sadness lingering around her features. "I'm sure all this serious talk is making you hungry, it's lunch and no-one's eating either. Please help yourselves."

Mumbled thanks resonated around the table and everyone moved to take one or two.

"You know… it's only going to hurt when everything is over." Lu whispered, her shoulders sagging. "All this effort you're putting in to conceal us from the Vongola, you'll still be stuck there forever even if we survive."

"We know, girl." The mist responded. "But as the older generation and as the issue is within our own famiglia and with our own sky, it is our duty to at least attempt to prevent it from getting any worse. We will protect you all, the next generation of leaders and fighters, to the best of our ability."

Sadness erupted around the room that even Luculia, whose flames were completely suppressed, could feel it. The pair were completely resigned to their fates within the Vongola and were willing to give anything up to ensure a better future.

"It is also to our own benefit that another war does not commence. Grudges with power are dangerous and as I said we would essentially be heavily involved either way due to our positions. Whether the order is in the right or the wrong, we will be forced to fight on those orders."

Squalo hated that he was relying on others and wanted to contribute as much as possible. It wasn't even his issue and it wouldn't hurt him at all but it made him angry at the world.

It had been Squalo's dream up to that point to become the strongest swordsman in the world, to be a part of the Vongola, the strongest famiglia in the mafia as well, yet, here were two of the main guardians of one of his goals telling him about the darkness within and the sacrifices they were very much prepared to make stop them.

Bianchi felt upset and pulled Hayato into her arms. The boy didn't struggle. Bianchi had her own reasons to be upset about the revelations about the Vongola. She knew that her father would attempt to use Hayato by integrating him into that famiglia in order to create connections. She gritted her teeth causing Hayato to turn his head to watch her in confusion and concern. Bianchi would not let him her father do that.

Kyoya was irritated with how useless he felt and resolved himself to just sit in silence, watch and listen.

Ganauche stood with a loud and exaggerated groan that broke the silent sadness. He grinned at the kids, "Don't go all sobby on us now. What happened to the rowdy and rambunctious group of misfits that jumped out a window this morning?"

Lu pouted at him but when the warning bell for the final sector of class rung out she hopped off the chair to stand at the head of the table with her arms on her hips.

She puffed her chest out, "I'm not one to stand around! I'm gonna get super strong and smart and I'm gonna make really cool gadgets to give you guys too!"

A soft smile appeared on the lightning's face and the mist raised an eyebrow slightly in appreciative amusement.

"I'll hold you to that then, little missy."

She gave them a big grin and a thumbs up.

Squalo shot up to a stand and offendedly waved his signature sword around, "Oi! Don't leave me out, I'm going to get so much stronger than all of your Vongola fuckers then I'll beat them all up and you can work for me instead!"

Bianchi rolled her eyes, "I'm sure that's the case... but no-one should mess with bonds and love!" her eyes shone with fire, "I'll destroy anyone who disrupts the power of love!"

_RINGGGG_

Their inspirational talks fell to paled faces when the beginning of the class bell went off.

Silence filled the air for a few seconds of heavy brain lag.

"Uh… Sensei, you're late." The resident older cloud pointed out.

Ganauche scrambled out of his chair, "FUCK" he yelled as he bolted out the door.

Kyoya leaned back in his chair and relaxed with no intention of returning to class and Hayato walked up to him and nudged his leg as his sister bolted back to class.

"Can you at least terrify the teacher to the point where I won't be penalised for being later _before_ you go back to sleep?"

The cloud grumbled in irritation and was about to shoot the boy down before he spotted the expectant look on his sky's face. "Fine..."

Hayato cheered and grinned, he wasn't going to get in trouble this time!

Lu watched him with a proud smile, he was socialising _and_ making a friend.

Shuan suddenly grabbed her arm and dragged her to the door, breaking her out of the dream world she put herself in, "Hurry up, we'll be late." He warned her before pausing momentarily to glance at the other mist.

"Oi, old man." He called out.

The mist cocked his head to the side in question before staggering forward suddenly and pulling his flames around himself to protect himself. His hands flew to his knees to stabilise his body.

Shuan grinned cheekily before wrapping the girl's flames back up and ushering her out the door.

"You got what you wanted, hope it helps!"

As the last of the group vanished from sight, the mist let his shoulders sag into the fluffy cushion of his chair.

Ganauche wasn't kidding when he said the girl had an extremely large volume of potent flames, it was almost suffocating.

He dearly wished that he had more time to speak with those children since speaking directly Watari would be disastrously difficult to pull off himself.

As heart-warming as their determinations were to his soul, he knew that they would have their own issues to deal with in a few years to come.

Keeping up the act with Ganauche with respects to Nono would be a simple task unless Nono found evidence of their actions and began to become suspicious. Spacial awareness in that man was impossible to hide from even for him as a powerful mist.

His goal was to keep Watari and Nono as far away from each other in terms of line of sight and flame detection such that no regretful movements would be taken. This task should give them at the very least a good few years before any real action would need to be taken.

As the final bell of the school day went off, Croquant Bouche positioned himself, concealed by mist flames at the front gates and quickly found the cloud-mist boy's attention.

Shuan chose to remain silent went he noticed the man and continued to walk before resting and leaning himself on the walls nearby as if he was waiting for someone.

Lu was clueless at what he was doing but trusted him enough to just tag along silently.

_'Why are you still here?'_ Shuan spoke to the mist's mind.

_'You're a psychic.' _He stated with a slight surprise. _'But that's beside the point, I believed you were the more mature and reasonable one of your little friend group so I'm here to inform you of my movements.'_

The blond's eyes went wide and the stoic mist quickly ushered the boy to recompose himself.

_'Nothing will happen for now. You and your friends will train, get strong, protect yourselves, conceal personal information. We will conceal your identities hopefully until the end of your schooling. In the case that something goes wrong, you should refer this to Watari and any current arcobaleno you have in your household. I have no intention of assassinating Nono, in my opinion, he is not a terrible person minus a few of his morals and his occasional mind process.'_

_'So, he's occasionally insane. Excellent.'_

The man grumbled. _'In the more polite sense, yes. Keep your sky and Watari out of his line of sight and all will be well. We will deal with the consequences later should anything fail.'_

_'Right, okay.'_

_'If Ganauche dies due to our sky, Nono will no longer be my sky.' _Croquant Bouche prepared himself to leave, his body slowly fading into the wind.

_'Catch. Don't die, okay?'_ The boy said suddenly and lobbed the object to the man.

The mist caught the contraption without a second thought and disappeared into nothingness without a word. He didn't want to make empty promises that he might not be able to keep.

* * *

The peaceful silence of his office was split by a series of clean knocks against the door. The old man sat silently with a cigar in hand as he stared out into the darkened garden.

The moonlight shone brightly into the room.

"...Come in."

The door creaked lightly as the suit-clad man pushed his way into the room. The dim moonlight lit up the lower half of his body in contrast to the darkness of the unlit room that blended the rest of him into the shadows of the room.

His voice was gruff. "Nono, there's been a breach of protocol. Suppressed information has been found and a traitor has been identified. Your orders?"

The kind-faced old man puffed out a breath of smoke and spent a brief glance to the man to his side.

"Just the one?"

The man dropped a slow nod, "Yes, sir."

"Take them out," The Vongola boss ordered, "No matter who it is we cannot have information being leaked out."

"... but of course, Nono."

He wanted to laugh at fate, elemental advantages were truly a beautiful sight to behold.

How lucky Timoteo was to have such a proficient and loyal storm.

Whilst nothing screamed loyalty more than being his closest childhood friend, this would set his sky's opinion of his loyalty into stone.

He would never be questioned by the man ever again and the small sacrifice of a simple traitor would do just fine.

Oh, how far those _near _the top were destined to fall…

…and those _at_ the top to rise even further.

_How lucky Ganauche was for his traces to be hidden under the fallen mist. _


	14. When Bonds are Severed

It was very apparent to Watari that their second day of class would be their last. It was unfortunate for their education to be denied as such but he would very much rather spend his time tutoring them than to send them to their deaths.

It was terrifying when the second that Shuan released his hold of their sky's flames, the girl crumbled into the ground in tears. Dread flooded her veins to the point of completely overwhelming her senses.

"There was something there, someone listening!" she sobbed out, thin threads of flames spreading out chaotically through the room. "I'm scared—I'm so scared for them. It felt like Bianchi's flames, like Hayato's flames, like Fon's flames. It wasn't right, it was burning him!"

Watari gathered the young girl into his arms and tucked her under his chin, they believed that her flames and intuition were connected somehow but they believed that the suppression allowed her to feel nothing. They were clearly wrong in that fact.

He sent comforting waves of warm flames over the girl's skin and her hyperventilating slowly calmed to deep breaths. The condensed threads melting into a comfortable soft flame.

If compressing her flames only lead to accumulation of the experiences with regards to her intuition, they should never do it again. With the situation as it is, it would only lead to terrible things, it would run her to insanity.

It was the second day of class and just the news and dread of the Vongola situation threw her intuition into agony.

His concern spread to not only his young ward but to all her friends along with the 9th generation lightning and especially that mist.

Croquant Bouche was one of Watari's staff at an earlier point in his life and despite the deep hatred his boss seemed to hold for him, the feeling hadn't spread through the sky's bond. Despite that, he tended to stay away for the sake of preventing unneeded chaos.

None of them wanted that mist to die, he didn't deserve to be killed by his own elements.

"He won't die," Shuan spoke up, easily attracting attention to himself. "He came to me to explain what we were supposed to do. He told me that they would try and conceal us from the other Vongola and for us to train and grow strong so we could protect ourselves."

Verde took a sip of his drink and gave the cloud-mist a considering look, "And you gave him your watch."

"—and I gave him my watch, yes. Don't ask me _why_ it just felt right to do so."

An aggravated sigh escaped the lightning arcobaleno, "What part of 'Don't ever take it off' do you brats not understand?" he grumbled under his breath. He knew that what the young cloud had done was good, trusting your instincts was always a good idea yet the scientist couldn't help but feel a little spiteful that he had given away that piece of quality technology so easily.

"He was a good man, he obviously wanted to help Ganauche to conceal us from his boss." The boy tried to reason.

Fon lifted his gaze from his tea, "Though, it was likely for both his own sake and for his fellow guardians."

Shuan took a brief look at his sleeping sky, her cheeks were pink and he eyes sagged, evidence of exhaustion and crying. He gritted his teeth, "I know but when goals align, so can allies. Ganauche clearly cares for Lu to an extent and Croquant Bouche would never do something that could ruin a relationship with another element."

Watari hummed, "Go eat some dinner, Shuan, Kyoya. I will take her to her room." He stood up slowly with the girl in his arms.

"Don't think about it too much. Like you said, with the watch, he will not die. We will discuss this further tomorrow morning."

* * *

Croquant returned to the mansion through his own flames and immediately landed directly into his office.

It was eerily silent, which it should not be. He glanced at his wristwatch, mansion staff should be sweeping the halls at this very hour as they had done for decades.

He hated pure silence with a passion. Nothing should be completely silent, humming, buzzing, breathing, there were endless possibilities for background noises yet the room was completely silent.

He could hear his own footsteps clicking against the _carpet_ as he walked towards the door with a sigh, he would have to deal with the slacking staff.

The mist twisted the knob open only to be rewarded with a click. All blood dropped from his face and he went as pale as a sheet.

He knew that noise and that was not something that the door typically made.

The usually stoic man erupted into bitter laughter. He wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, how the fuck did they find out so fast?

"Hahaha**haha... Fuck me."**

He let his body fall back as the explosion of storm flames flooded his senses and flames, dropping his consciousness into the void.

* * *

Luculia was suffering and they were clueless as to why.

The girl was curled up into a fetal position in the centre of Watari's bed. Tears were dribbling down her cheeks and her breaths were left worryingly shallow and rapid. Her mind trapped in dreams and visions.

_'**Fuck you, Coyote'**_

_Who…? Why was this happening, it was hurting, it was burning. She didn't know why he was hurting her!_

Even with the rain-induced sun flames that Watari was attempting to comfort the girl with, she was still in a clear panic. She couldn't stay still, a cold sweat broke over her body.

_'Storm flames…' her mind hissed in grim anger. She felt angry and betrayed but the worst of all... she felt resigned._

The air in the room was grim as the residents of the house could only watch the sky suffer helplessly.

Shuan sat at her side and probed at her mind hysterically trying to break his sky out of her dreams. Viper had attempted to influence her mind with mist but was quickly struck away, but luckily for them, Viper and Shuan's psychic abilities were vastly different in characterises.

He would never miss a chance to attempt to help but he wasn't getting through at all either.

She started screaming and clutching and scratching all over her skin. **It bUrNED, it HuRT. **Watari desperately pinned her arms to her sides to prevent any further self-harm.

_Her skin was gone, the all-consuming **red** flames were taking her limbs apart. She felt agonizing pain and couldn't feel nor hear anything other than the overflux of flames and pain. _

_She was **melting**._

_She couldn't even hear herself **scream.**_

The thick atmosphere was slit by the sudden ear-shattering screech of a warp, a suffocating amount of storm fighting mist flames flooded the room.

_'Her body burst into a million pieces, the pain subsided into numb pulses, the mocking and gleeful **laughs** of that man forever echoed through her mind.'_

Watari's eyes forced wide, "Croquant…?"

Luculia was hyperventilating and Mei ran comforting circles on the girl's back in hopes of calming her down.

A gasp escaped Croquant Bouche, he was still barely, but conscious. His legs, mid-thigh all the way down, were _gone _and the flames were not stopping.

He shook himself out of his shock, "Viper, Shuan!" he hissed out in a panic.

The mists took a moment to take in the situation and immediately worked their flames against the storm.

This was not something any of them had seen before, Watari had his suspicions but it was never a defined fact until the ex-Vongola mist appeared on fire, the two flame's characteristics were bleeding over each other running back and forth.

Verde watched the scene with calculating eyes and lips pressed tightly together. Dying will flame elements had advantages over others and were weak against another.

For the powerful mist to get to the point where he was to be force warped to safety meant that the offending storm assailant must have been significantly stronger or something else happened.

They wouldn't know until the victim of the attack confirmed it himself.

The overpowering creation characteristics of the mist shortly forced all traces of the offending storm out of the man's system. The benefits of the cloud propagations with Viper's expertise over his flames left the enemy storm flames with no chance at all.

Croquant Bouche was taken quickly to the infirmary by Viper and Watari.

Shuan stared in horror at the now legless man as his blood left a horror-worthy trail of blood in his wake. The same man that powerful man that was completely fine a couple of hours ago when he left school. The man who was so obviously more powerful than he was... yet there he was, on the border of bleeding out.

It struck him hard how easily lives could be dismantled and destroyed and how valuable and necessary power, smarts and skills were to survival.

* * *

Roaring red flames were devouring the mist sector of the Vongola mansion and Ganauche watched in horror as it raged over the building.

It was horrifying and that was not something he wanted to see when he arrived home from work.

His face went blank when he realised, did… did someone hear something?

Is that why…?

He powered forward into the crowd with heavy steps, the mansion staff were all gathered after evacuation in the courtyards facing to the centre of the crowds and not to the burning flames.

He pushed himself through, only to see Nono and his guardians were present there too…

**Sans Croquant Bouche.**

He stormed forward and to his so-called sky. "Nono!" he called out with agitation noticeable in his tone.

The sky was in complete shock, he was seated down with his hands clutched at his head in agony. His eyes were screwed shut and it was obvious by the groans that he was doing everything he could to hold himself from screaming.

The other guardians were desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with the man.

Ganauche stopped beside the older man, his breaths coming out as pants as he just stared at the man.

"…What happened to the mansion?!" He asked the other guardians urgently.

Coyote pulled back to look at the young man was a dark glare. Ganauche suddenly felt like a child again.

"Croquant Bouche betrayed us." He hissed out. "And Nono is suffering the consequences."

The lightning's heart dropped, "…and Croquant, what did you do with him? The mist unit is in flames! **_Storm flames!_** Why did you find it necessary to blow a portion of the house up to subdue him?!"

The 9th generation storm stared blankly back at his fellow element.

"I didn't subdue him, Ganauche. **I killed him.**"

He knew Coyote well enough to know that putting out such a blaze of his own flames would just as easy to evaporate for him as quickly as they started. He didn't only kill a primary guardian, he burned his corpse and potentially any and all of his subordinates under the suspicion that they were all traitors.

The innocent lower mist sector workers that knew near to nothing about anything that happened in high ground.

He gritted his teeth. It was disgusting and Ganauche wanted to scream.

* * *

When Luculia woke up she felt exhausted and traumatised. She wanted to cry.

It was extremely early in the morning, about 2 am when she awoke and she had Kyoya snuggled up to her side.

She rolled over and tugged the boy closer to her body in a hug, she wanted all the comfort she could get. Her eyes welled up with tears and she silently sobbed into his hair.

_Nono was rushed to the infirmary when the flames subsided. Rain users flooded his system with tranquilising flames to numb the pain, but nothing was being affected._

_They tried everything from the point that he keeled over in pain to the second that he awoke once again after his symptoms vanished._

_In the end, nothing worked, and the boss opened his eyes visibly exhausted from having endured the event. _

_His subordinates fretted over his state._

Kyoya shifted awake and simply stayed quiet. He shuffled her body to hug the girl back, he was plenty willing to be a source of comfort after the pain she had gone through.

Lu felt numb, the lingering feeling of being burned to death felt awful but her body was in fine condition. She didn't know who was experiencing it, or if it was a dream but she never wanted to wish such a fate on a person.

Verde entered the room shortly after with a grim expression on his face. He quickly climbed onto the bed, "Brat, how are you feeling?"

She rubbed at her eyes furiously to try and clear her vision and stifle her sobs.

"B-better…"

He presented her with a sharp nod. "That's good. Croquant Bouche is alive, disabled but alive and we will be allowing him sanctuary here for a good while. I thought you'd want to know."

Her hands clenched at Kyoya's clothes.

"…was he the one that was on fire?"

Verde's eyes went wide. "How much do you know? **H****ow** do you know? You were unconscious the whole time."

She stuffed her face into the little cloud's hair to conceal her tears and slowly resurfacing sobs.

She breathed in shakily, "I-I know because..." her eyes welled up with tears and her limbs pulsed in agony at the memory.

"…because I was burning too." She hoarsely whispered.

Verde turned on his heel and bolted from the room with a distinct urgency, Watari needed to hear about this.

_"Are you alright, Nono?" his storm asked him from his bedside._

_The man gritted his teeth and his hands clenched around the fabric of the blankets that covered him. He, but all, hissed at the other man. "I was **burning**, Coyote. I heard you laugh as you watched him__—**me**__ die, as his body disintegrated. It was mortifying, disgusting and terrifying."_

_The storm flinched away._

_"I know that you watch over famiglia research, if anyone knew this would happen, it would be **you**. I am furious and offended that you would ever subject me to this."_

_Panic rose in Coyote's eyes, "I didn't know—"_

_"—**Do not** make useless excuses with me and **do not** fail so terribly again in future. You are dismissed."_

_His storm clenched his jaw and breathed in sharply through his nose. With a hard expression, he bowed his head in respect, the shadows concealing his frustrated expression._

_"…of course, Nono."_

* * *

As the sun arose later in the morning, Lu dragged herself out of bed. She wanted to go check on Croquant Bouche.

Kyoya released a small whine concealed within a grumble when she left. She picked him up and cuddled him both with her flames and physically in her arms before she left the room.

Her body was exhausted, but she still easily found the strength to carry the young boy with her. It felt so foreign to have her flames free and about, she slid her vision to see the stars and was pleased to see the familiar colourful balls of flames hovering around the house.

She sighed and swapped back to reality before wandering to the infirmary. The warmth of Watari's flames slowly growing warmer by the second.

She bumped into Mei leaving the infirmary when Lu was about to enter. The woman was surprised but quickly morphed her expression into a smile and patted her head, then Kyoya's before scooping the boy from the girl.

Even as a civilian, Mei was observant and intelligent. She knew the signs of exhaustion that presented themselves over Luculia and chose to make it a bit easier on the girl. Kyoya took to the transition easily.

"_Good morning, Lu-chan."_ The woman greeted kindly, _"Are you here to see our new visitor?"_

The sky bobbed her head owlishly.

Mei stepped to the side and let the girl in, _"I made some cookies that are in the kitchen, you should come and have some after you finish your visit."_

Lu paused mid-step and smiled appreciatively at the woman.

_"Okay, I'll be sure to come by. Thank you, Mei-san."_

She gave the girl a curt nod before walking off with her son in her arms.

Luculia walked down the short, and white-clad corridor of the infirmary towards the only occupied room. She stood silently watching from the other side of the glass as Watari and the arcobaleno discussed some things around Croquant's bedside, that she couldn't hear through the soundproof material.

She clutched onto the windowsill with her bare hands.

From the corner of his eyes, Fon was the first to notice their sky's appearance and greeted her was a serene smile. The rest of the group soon followed suit before Watari moved to join her in the corridor. Her eyes followed his form as he exited the room.

"Little flower," He greeted, "Why don't you come inside?"

She blinked slowly, transferring her attention back to the unconscious mist.

"It feels like I'd be intruding…" she whispered. "It didn't feel right."

Shuan entered the corridor from the outer entrance, Mei had likely told him that Lu had woken up and had made her way over to the infirmary.

He halted when he saw the pair on the wrong side of the glass.

"Why're you both out here?" He asked, the expression she made told him everything.

"Croquant Bouche isn't weak, y'know. Not emotionally, not flame-wise, not physically and you know better than anyone that you weren't the one that hurt him."

Her eyes lowered to the floor as if somewhat guilty, "I know that" she reasoned quietly, "but it still feels like there was something I could've done more."

He gifted his sky with a soft grin as he dumped his arm over her shoulder and lead her towards the patient room door. With a knowing smile, Watari pressed the button to let them through.

"A-ah, Shuan!" she whined in panic.

"It's okay," he assured her, her averted gaze spoke wonders of how she still didn't believe him.

He stopped walking halfway through the room and grabbed her upper arms. "Oi, look at me." He demanded lightly.

The girl dragged her eyes to meet his, "Really, it's okay. Thanks to your suggestion about giving them gadgets and equipment, I was able to give him my watch which saved his life. If you didn't say that then, then he wouldn't be here at all. _You contributed to saving his life, Lu._ Don't discredit yourself so quickly."

Her cloud released his hold on her and joined the arcobaleno at the ex-Vongola mist's bedside.

Verde smirked at the boy after seeing Luculia visibly start rethinking while staring silently into the palms of her hands.

"Nice."

Shuan rolled his eyes, "Oh thanks, oh gracious one."

Lu followed him a few long moments after he left her side and stood silently next to the unconscious mist.

She was careful to concentrate really hard on holding her flames back away from him in case she might hurt him. She knew that she could easily slip up and do so to those she wasn't harmonized with.

Her elements could feel her actions when their sky's comforting flames no longer coated the air of the room.

"You don't need to do that," Watari informed her. "We believe that you already created a minor bond with Croquant and that was why you felt the effects of his near-death experience."

Verde nodded, "Your flames may be really strong with regards to pure power and extremely large in volume, but it seems that you also have a high level of sensitivity in your flames as well. That would essentially explain why you feel other's emotions so much easier, why your control is so good and why your temperament changes so drastically when your flames are compressed."

Her shoulders sagged slightly as she released her flames. Several discrete sighs of pleasure and relief escaped the occupants of the room as the sky's flames flood their systems once more.

The sudden flush of sky flames must have urged the man awake as his eyes slowly peeled open.

Lu fell into a panic and started fussing over the man that was very well about 9 times her ages. Her arms were waving rapidly in front of her as her head snapped around the room looking for _something,_ but she wasn't exactly sure what.

So, she ended up reverting back to her consistent back-up plan, "W-Watari! _What do I do?_" She cried.

The old sun chuckled and dropped a hand on her head, "Calm down, little flower. He's just fine, he's in no danger of dying nor should he be in any pain. He is simply tired."

"O-oh… okay…"

The tanned man blinked a few times to adjust himself to the light, Watari moved behind him to press a button to sit the hospital bed upwards.

"How are you feeling, Croquant?"

The old mist's breathing easily smoothed out, "Fine, thank you." He replied politely.

Lu poked her head out from behind Watari to peek at the man. Her mouth formed an 'o' when she saw that he was comfortable and in no noticeable pain.

She tugged at Watari's sleeve urging him to lean down which in turn, he did so. She cupped her hands over her mouth to whisper in his ear but like any well-trained person from the mafia, basically, everyone in the room heard her.

"I'm gonna go get some cookies from Mei-san, I'll be back with a bunch, okay?" He smiled at the girl who pulled back and gave him a serious and determined nod and a thumbs up before slipping out of the room.

Once the girl had left the room, Croquant breathed in sharply through his teeth after shifting his body.

"…he really burned my legs off, huh?" he asked rhetorically, his face grim.

"That won't be an issue." Verde cut in. All eyes were on him. "With how stuck you are right now, you'll have plenty of time for me to put you to work. Use that creative mist brain of yours to come up with some design of prosthetics for yourself then refer it to me for checking."

He pulled out the retractable desk that was connected to the hospital bed and dragged it out then laptop out of no-where that was already connected to its charger and dumped it on the desk before placing a wireless mouse and headset beside it.

The mist watched silently, the stunned look that appeared in his eyes was the only thing that broke through his poker face and stoic façade.

Verde pointed at the items one by one, "My old laptop, don't need it anymore since I have a perfectly good desktop and a spare laptop. Luculia-brat's spare wireless mouse, she won't care if you use it, she takes perfectly fine care of her first one. The headset is new though, we didn't have extras, but it wasn't all that expensive, like $200-ish which wouldn't leave a dent in any of our banks sans the children's."

He hopped off the hospital bed to head out the room, but not before sending their new resident a smug smirk, "Good luck, have fun and don't touch anything in the labs once you get yourself around. It'll usually make our resident sky cry if something blows up."

He bumped into Lu exactly at the point where she bumped into Mei. The sky was holding a piece of Tupperware full of the sugary treats.

"—Oh! Sorry, Verde. Want a cookie?"

Verde replied in the form of grabby motions, "Yeah, give me like 4. I'm going back to my office."

She peeled the box open and handed the cookies to him inside of a napkin that she somehow had on her person.

"Thanks, brat."

* * *

Class 5S was rather gloomy for that day of school.

Ganauche didn't go to class, he called in a sick day and a relieving teacher, who was severely less accepting of them, came to teach the class for the day.

Neither the sky bunny nor cloud ass appeared at any point of the day and it was making Bianchi and even Squalo worried. With how serious the conversation from the day before was, they were worried that something went wrong.

When the bell for first break rung, the chaotic duo went straight to the greenhouse to see if anyone was there. They had hoped that maybe another one of the 9th generation Vongola was there to meet them as Croquant Bouche had, but they were disappointed when the place was completely empty with no signs of there ever being a presence there after they had left the day before.

Their next destination to check was the primary school. They were looking for the mini-cloud, Hibari Kyoya. They knew from their last visit that the boy hated crowds with a passion but their first point to check was the classroom in the case that their class was let out late but the younger kids had already begun to group up and go to their snack spots just before they arrived so they wouldn't have known if he was there.

Hayato's eyes widened when he spotted them lingering around, he waved them over. Something he probably wouldn't have done for his sister prior to yesterday but she had acted so caringly and had stopped cooking for him after they got home so he decided to give her another chance and let her in.

"What's wrong? And where's Lu-nee and Shuan?" he asked innocently and with genuine confusion and concern.

Squalo pursed his lips together, "They didn't come to class today, neither did lightning ass so we came to see if the mini-cloud came to class."

The smaller silver-haired boy shook his head side to side with an apologetic expression.

"Sorry, but Kyoya didn't come to class today either."

Bianchi looked down sadly and Squalo released an aggravated sigh, "Oh, come on!" he groaned in frustration, "What the fuck happened?!"

He huffed and stormed off once again out of the building and this time to the cafeteria, maybe he would be able to overhear something fucking useful for once.

Bianchi quickly caught up with him and Hayato trailed along soon after.

"Did you see that cute transfer student?! I think it was love at first sight for me!"

"Ehh…? Did you get a photo? I wanna see!"

"I tried to, but I was worried that he might see me, I'll point him out if I see him again though! The school isn't all that big so it shouldn't be too hard."

…Squalo wanted to pull his hair out. He didn't want to hear this shit about a guy (probably Shuan) he wanted decent information. Bianchi was soaking the gossip in with great pleasure, though. Hayato facepalmed at her antics.

"—Hey, did you hear? Apparently, there was a huge storm flame explosion that happened at the Vongola mansion."

The trio snapped straight back to reality and barged in on the table's conversation.

"Of course I heard it, Dino. It was _my_ house that was on fire."

With a growl, Squalo dangled the boy by his collar. "Tell me every fucking thing you know about this Vongola shit, kid."

The blond boy with a terribly tied tie, that the guy that Squalo was dangling in his grasp had called Dino, was panicking from the sidelines.

"O-oi!" he attempted to protest but was immediately shut down by the patronizing glare from Squalo.

Their "friends" all abandoned ship when the top two combatants and chaos creators (i.e. the delinquents of the mafia) made a move.

Bianchi glared them down, just _asking _them to try and report them. A silent but effective threat, they wouldn't be saying anything.

The poor boy flailed in his hold in a panic, "O-okay, just let me down please."

Squalo dropped the kid to the seat but paused when he saw all his "friends" gone. Oh, damn, now he felt kinda bad for the guy but no friends better than fake friends, I guess.

Dino was also visibly upset at the fact that his table was empty, that his friends abandoned him with the scary kids of the school.

Squalo hovered awkwardly around the guy, "Uhh… wanna eat with us then?" he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Bianchi snorted at the sight which earned her a hefty glare.

The boys exchanged eye contact with each other. Neither of them were the best at social interaction but they both had images to uphold too.

"Yeah, you both can come." Bianchi agreed, "Once you help us find Lulu and Shuan then we can talk permanent status' but for now, you'll stick with us."

"O-oh, okay." The blonde stuttered out.

"Nice doing business with you, blondie. The hell is your name again?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you before. I'm Dino Cavallone."

"And, you? Kid that lives at the Vongola mansion?"

"Oh, I'm Federico Ferrino."

"Right!" He grinned at the pair, "It's a pleasure, Cavallone, Ferrino. Let's see how long it takes us to get you guys transferred into 5S."

* * *

**I hope this chapter both _Frozen teen _and _yupino's _questions. **

**I have to say though, it was my first time playing around with scene flashes between Nono and Lu (thanks to _Mitsu21_ for pointing out that they weren't flashbacks haha, I had been treating them like that though) and I'm still trying to find a style that makes it fit well with the atmosphere. I hope I did alright with this one.**

**_yupino,_ though. You're so cute! ( ´ ▽ ` ) ****It already makes me super happy that you spent the time to write a review at all, it doesn't need to be long at all! (and don't worry, I'll be sure to kill some people off before I leave ^^)**


	15. Where Loyalties Lie

**Thank you to all those who favourited, followed or reviewed! Can't believe we've bypassed the 70k/Chapter 15 mark now.**

**Reviews will be acknowledged at the end of chapter notes. ****v(****￣∇￣)**

**ver. 2.0 - adjusted because it's 2:30am and I read it through once more and I really didn't like it myself haha hopefully it has a little more flow now.**

* * *

Silence is his greatest weapon, his constant right of choice.

Federico wasn't ignorant to Squalo's reaction to the Vongola name, and how he was looking for his friends because his father was also looking into a couple of children in relation to one of his enemies that attended his school.

However, Federico was never informed as to why and it frustrated him to death.

It was always,

"Don't ask for information you are not entitled to." or "I'm sorry, Young Master. We've been instructed to remain silent." or any variation of "no, fuck off."

Dino had been a constant for him during the past few years at school. He was his best friend, his partner in not-crime because they apparently seemed too soft for the pranks that were pulled. They were both locked into positions that they never wanted but had to attend to anyway, they related to each other in that sense and if Federico ever implied that he wanted his own silence, Dino would easily comply and play along.

Federico was the youngest of three sons yet he was the rightful heir of the Vongola famiglia because his idiot older brothers couldn't get their shit together. He never wanted the job, but he was assigned the position anyway and he knew how it felt to have to carry the weight of a famiglia's reputation.

His father's guardians had always been there to take care of his and he had always been close to his father's guardians, the majority of them anyway. Ganauche was the best babysitter, Croquant was the best teacher and Visconti was the best trainer. The boy adored these guardians of his father's and was completely crushed when heard that Croquant had been killed within the flames that went off in the Vongola mansion.

Through his training with them, Federico found that he wasn't the best at fighting, he wasn't a genius, but he was good at reading people, at making friends, _at lying._ He was good at observing and watching without being seen. He was hardworking so he could get passed off as being naturally talented.

It was a skill that only Croquant and Visconti held the knowledge of, and they would be the only ones that would.

The night of the fire, Federico felt suspicious. Something was digging into the back of his intuition and it wasn't letting him sleep. He knew his father was in the infirmary for some worryingly unknown reason and Federico's first thought was that perhaps his intuition was warning him of his father's death, maybe his condition got worse and it wanted him to go stay by his side.

He had always been told to never doubt his intuition and he wasn't about to start doing so now.

The boy slipped into the hallways and expertly blended into the shadows.

None of the staff had noticed him as he made his way quickly down the house and towards the infirmary, thankfully the infirmary was relatively close to his bedroom so he had no need to venture through the stairwells where he would most definitely be caught.

He had to be careful, though. It was well past his bedtime and if he was wrong about his father perhaps needing him here, he would get in deep trouble for being awake at this hour. His father's intuition would be a bitch to slip past as well but if there was something that Croquant always reminded him over and over it was that everyone could be tricked.

The most foolproof way to trick someone is to truly begin to believe it for yourself.

Federico had no intention of lingering for long, he just wanted to see if his father needed anything before going back to bed. That should satisfy the itch in the back of his mind.

He wandered up to the closed infirmary doors, well prepared to knock when he froze with his knuckles inches away from the door in response to hearing voices.

_"I was **burning**, Coyote. I heard you laugh as you watched him—**me** die, as his body disintegrated. It was mortifying, disgusting and terrifying."_

His body went rigid and his breaths became dangerously shallow. His father felt _him, _burning… he heard _Coyote _laughing as he died.

He could connect the dots… **Coyote killed Croquant.**

He fell into a panic; he couldn't be here. He needed to leave—**neEDED TO LEAVE.**

He spun on his heel and quickly walked away at a quick pace… but he wasn't discrete enough. His shoes clicked rapidly against the clothed floors.

He heard the infirmary door get slammed open as a hand cupped around his mouth and swung the small boy around the assailant. Federico calmed his breathing to deep breaths through his nose.

"Who's there?!" Coyote yelled. He must have heard Federico's footsteps, there was no way he could have felt his flames.

"Calm down, Coyote. It's just me, I came to check on Nono's condition." The man holding him firmly spoke. Federico knew that deep, stern voice very well, it was Visconti.

He pursed his lips together as the Vongola cloud released his hold on him and urged him forward. Federico just walked forward and directly down the hallway.

Coyote didn't spare him the slightest glance.

"You should have just come straight in, instead of lingering, Visconti." Coyote hissed, "It makes you seem suspicious."

Visconti averted his gaze to glance out the window, "…Right, my apologies."

Once Federico had gotten out of hearing range and direct line of sight he leaned against the nearest wall, sliding down with a sigh of relief. He rubbed the welled-up tears away from his face as he dragged the doors of his bedroom back open and entered.

Nothing was more comforting than closing the door behind him after entering his room, his safe place.

He dove straight into his blankets and dug his body under his covers.

A part of him wished he never heard anything, but the itch was gone, his intuition was calm, and knowledge is power.

He breathed out sharply. He shouldn't regret it.

**Knowledge is power.**

* * *

Squalo, Bianchi and Bianchi's younger brother Hayato were interesting people. They were friendly yet somewhat crazy and Federico loved it.

It terrified Dino to be friends with kids that were so keen to be in the mafia scene, yet found comfort in their genuineness. They were honest and blunt people that knew what they wanted and furiously pursued it. He admired them for it.

The pair lead the two boys to the middle school greenhouse that they had only ever dreamed of entering.

"…Are you sure we can go in here?" Dino asked, unsurely. He knew about the stories of people getting beat up for trying to go there.

Squalo rolled his eyes, "Of course, I'm sure. I'm the fucking top of this school's combat ranks and no-one is going to be able to kick me out if they tried."

The two skies blanched, "You're the top in the grade?!" "You're the one that's been beating everyone up?!"

Squalo grinned proudly. "Yep, that's me!"

Bianchi snorted at how happy he was to be able to flaunt beating people up, it was hilarious.

"Oh, shit. Nice."

Squalo went in first, dragged the door open before leading them to the table.

It dug up longingly sad feelings in him when he stared at the empty seats. The seats that were full of talkative joy and of his friends just the day before.

He clenched his jaw but brushed it off soon after. He would find them and bring them back.

Bianchi gestured to the seats, "Take a seat, we have a long conversation ahead of us."

The boys awkwardly sat themselves each in one of the lounge chairs but Federico jumped up suddenly startled.

This attracted several confused looks, but it was all explained when they heard a squeak of protest followed by a little creature bolting off the chair that Federico had almost absentmindedly occupied. It appeared that he almost sat on the poor creature.

"…isn't that the squirrel that's always with Lulu?" Bianchi wondered out loud.

Squalo scrambled to a stand, "Fuck, you're right!" He bolted off to chase Cosmo around the gardens.

"Get back here you little shit!"

The small orange squirrel skidded around a corner with Squalo barely missing him when the shark dove to catch him.

"OI!"

Amusement was dancing in Cosmo's eyes, he found the chase exhilarating, fun and just overall hilarious but during his half-hearted get away he was scooped up into the hands of none other than Federico.

"You're… Cosmo, right?" he asked the creature hesitantly. Cosmo eyed the boy suspiciously but nodded, nonetheless.

Federico recognised the little animal from a passing history book that he was required to study in order to hold up the appearance of intelligence. Cosmo was borderline famous in the sense that he had gone through at least a couple of generations of human partners, an absurd amount of years to live for what a appeared to be a regular squirrel.

"But, why are you here…?"

Squalo stumbled to a stand and dragged his feet back to the table, "Oi." He called out, "How do you know it?"

Cosmo looked absolutely miffed at the pronoun.

Federico replied in the form of a weak smile.

"I—uh, studied quite a bit of history and I recognised him from a picture."

Bianchi hummed in interest, "Do continue." She probed. Dino and Hayato were also visibly keen to hear the details but Squalo looked more expectant than simply interested.

Federico stroked the top of Cosmo's head. "The Vongola lets kids study in the library and Cosmo was in one of them."

Their eyes averted from the boy to the squirrel in his hands.

"Damn, I didn't think you were _that_ important."

Cosmo huffed and hopped onto the coffee table before pulling out a little piece of paper from the little sack he had wrapped across his shoulder. The squirrel eyed Squalo for a moment before clearly deciding 'Yeah, no.' and handed the note to Bianchi.

Squalo scowled at him but stayed silent in favour of hearing what the note said.

Bianchi peeled it open carefully and opened her mouth to read it out loud only to be completely cut off by a squirrel dropkick to the face. She glared at Cosmo while rubbing her abused cheek but pursed her lips and resolved herself to read it in her head.

Squalo huffed, clearly annoyed, and threw his back against his seat with his arms crossed.

_Dear Bia and Squ-chan, _

_This is Shuan, by the way. Lu just wrote the first line before running off to attempt to help cook dinner and I highlight the word **attempt**._

_Anyway, I enlisted Cosmo to deliver this so that I could update you about some stuff because I trust that he wouldn't let you fuck up and read this out loud. Keep this to yourself and Cosmo will burn it for you once you both read it or if it falls out of your hands._

_Don't feel threatened by external cameras of outlying eyes, I enlisted more help to deal with that. Namely in the form of a duo of reptiles. Storm flames can't melt through lightning enhanced illusions as easily._

_After the events of last night, I highly doubt Ganauche is at school, but I just wanted to tell you guys that we likely won't be going back. There is still a chance that the Vongola may associate you with us because they already took a hit on Croquant Bouche last night, so just be careful and be aware at all times._

_We don't know when they started listening, but they were listening to us talk at some point, enough to convict Croquant of hiding information._

_He's alive but severely injured and with us._

_Stay safe and be careful, if you need to contact us back… just tell Cosmo, he's more intelligent than he shows off._

_From,_

_Shuan_

_P.S. be aware that there are Vongola heirs and allies within the school, I shouldn't need to tell you to not disclose this information to anyone or talk about it in public._

Bianchi grimaced before roughly passing the note off to Squalo.

Federico and Dino couldn't help but attempt to peek at the note during the swap, but the words were blurred out and there was a faded image of a small frog attached to the back of the paper.

Federico mumbled out an apology and turned his attention to the side. It wasn't his right to look, the presence of the Fantasma spoke worlds about how private it was.

Squalo scanned the letter quickly before passing it over to Cosmo where it burst into flames the second it touched his paw. He leaned his elbow on the armrest and laid his chin on his palm, "You… live with the Vongola, right Ferrino?"

"Ah, yeah."

"Do you know what class the heirs are in then?"

A pained smile stretched over his face, "…No, sorry. Why though?"

Squalo waved him off with a slight nervous sweat. "Nah, it's fine, and uh just quantum fluctuation." He replied lamely.

Federico just stared at him, "Okay…?" Dino looked so boggled that it was as if Squalo was speaking another language.

Hayato sent him a 'wtf' look.

"…do you even know what quantum fluctuation is?"

Squalo scoffed, "Of course I do. Why would even _think_ of doubting me, squid kid?"

"Oh, I dunno. You don't seem all that smart, shark ass." He scowled at the mini-storm.

"I'm the top of my class thank you very fucking much."

Squalo leaned back and slouched in his seat when Hayato perked up, "So when is Croquant coming to visit again. He was scary but like really strong, I wanna see if he can help me with my personal project."

Bianchi and Squalo went rigid. _Fuck_, they didn't give the letter to Hayato nor told him to shut up.

Federico also froze in his seat and dragged unblinking eyes to meet Squalo's panicked ones. He moved forward to grab him by the shoulders and shook him back and forth.

"You know, Croquant…? When did you see him last?!" The Vongola heir exploded, demanding answers. His father, nor any of the guardians would even look his way about the incident. He just wanted to know what happened to his teacher.

Squalo pulled back from his grasp with short pants of breath. "Why would you need to know?!" he yelled back, equally as loud, if not louder. "How do you even know him, aren't you like a servant's kid or something? You don't even know what class the heir is in, why would you know the 9th generation mist personally?!"

Federico growled in frustration, he felt like pulling all his hair out. He had been kept in the dark for so long, he just wanted some fucking answers.

**"I am the Vongola heir, that's why I want to know this shit because no-one else will fucking tell me!"**

Squalo's eye went wide and both Bianchi and Hayato were frozen in fear, "Y-you're what…?" She whispered shakily.

Squalo dove at him, knocking Federico to the floor and reeled back his fist, "You… you fucking lied to me, you asshole." He hissed, he was furious with the other boy almost as much as he was angry at himself.

He punched a crater into the concrete to the right of his head before sneering and pulling away.

"Federico Ferrino di Vongola!" he fumed, how the hell didn't he realise it in the first place. He should have known this from the beginning.

He wanted to scream as he paced around back and forth, counting off the facts on his fingers, "Lives at fucking Vongola, tries to read confidential letter, wants to know about Croquant, **_his name_**. I can't believe I missed this shit."

He sat down and threw his face into his hands.

Federico froze at Squalo's reaction but quickly attempted to remedy his mistake. "W-wait… I'm not going to tell anyone anything, I just wanted to know what happe—"

"Then why did you lie about your identity?! Why not just fucking come straight out and say it?"

Federico flinched, "I—I'm sorry," he started, his voice cracking. "I didn't mean for it to come out that way, I just want answers!"

Squalo looked down, his eyes shadowed over. Federico could see his lips moving but it wasn't loud enough for him to here.

"I'm sorry?" he said, prompting him to try again.

"—said GET OUT. I don't trust you to be here, you already know too much and now we're all in danger because you're here!" he snapped.

Federico's shoulders sagged, "But I won't tell—" He was cut off by an aggressive hiss from the other boy.

"It doesn't matter if you won't say anything, it's the fucking Vongola and you're the heir. You are probably on constant surveillance and with what I've heard of your main family they're probably listening right as we speak, and you'll get drugged till you tell them everything!" He paused his rant to catch his breath.

"For the sake of all of us, please just leave…"

Federico left with his head lowered, Squalo was right and he should be more concerned about his own self right now.

Dino stayed to the side of everything.

Squalo was distraught and he felt somewhat terrible even though he technically didn't do anything.

Hayato felt really guilty, he didn't mean to start up a fight like that. Tears bubbled up in his eyes, but he furiously rubbed at them to blend them out.

"I'm really sorry…" he whispered to his sister and Squalo.

Squalo dropped a hand on the kid's head and ruffled his hair, "Not your fault, squid kid. We didn't tell you and it was thanks to you that we found out Federico's lineage before we said anything more. It was a good thing."

Bianchi sighed, "What am I going to tell Lulu now…?"

Dino's looked up at the mention. By Lulu she meant Luculia, right? They mentioned her name before.

"I… heard you say that name before, I don't know any Shuan, not by name at least, but I do know a Luculia."

Squalo snapped out of whatever sulking he was doing and visibly perked up. He was about to start interrogating the poor boy when Bianchi cut him off with a hand over his mouth.

"Can you like, describe her? We don't want to say too much if it's the wrong person."

Dino's eyes were filled with understanding, something that the other three really appreciated.

"Yeah, of course. She's like this adorable little mahogany haired girl," He extended his arm out as if he was cutting the air with his hand, "Like around this tall, the last time I saw her, and she had an uncanny amount of flames and really good control. She, uh was really charismatic? I dunno she made my tutor, who is like _impossible_ to please, like her."

"Yeah, that sounds like Lulu, doesn't it?" Bianchi cocked her head to Squalo in question.

He nodded eagerly, "Yeah it fucking does! Now tell us all you know Cavallone!"

Hayato let out an exasperated sigh and Dino released a nervous sweat. He rubbed the of his neck with a laugh.

"Right, uh… I don't really know her all that well directly, but my tutor has connections to her guardians. I met her a couple of time…" he trailed off, "I but most of the time I was unconscious…"

Squalo snorted, "Unfortunate for you."

Dino sighed. "I know right! It's my tutor's fault though, and I can't do much about it but keep training."

Bianchi turned her attention to him from wrapping up a reply note to Shuan and dismissing Cosmo and the other animals.

"Who _is_ your tutor exactly?" she enquired curiously.

"Oh, Reborn is my tutor."

Squalo blanched and Bianchi squealed in delight.

"You mean like the arcobaleno Reborn?! What kind of guardians does Luculia have?"

Dino pressed a finger to his chin, visibly thinking, "Uhh…" he starts smartly and raised a hand to start counting on his fingers.

"Well there's Ve—" _SMACK_

Hayato's book landed square on the boy's face, successfully shutting him up. Dino slumped back in his chair, completely knocked out.

"VOI! What the fu—"

Hayato was standing on his chair puffing out short breaths.

"After all that talk with Federico, you let Dino talk about this stuff. What if it's dangerous and people are listening?"

Squalo had the decency to look slightly guilty. "Ah, sorry."

Hayato sauntered over to the knocked-out Dino's side and poked him in the ribs. No response. Bianchi followed suit with Squalo in tow.

"What should we do with him?" She asked the other two.

Squalo shrugged, "Don't think he's gonna learn anything while unconscious, I reckon we can skip the rest of classes and find a more secure place to talk."

Hayato looked mortified at the concept of skipping class. "But what about our grad—" Bianchi waved him off.

"It's fiiine~ You're top in your class anyway; one half a day won't hurt you too much."

He huffed in defeat, "But where would we go? If someone's listening, they'd probably have heard us already."

Bianchi whipped out her phone with a proud-of-herself smile.

"Don't worry, I've got it all covered! I told father that we wouldn't be coming home tonight, and I got—"

Hayato's jaw dropped. "Waitwatiwaitwait—" he cut in, "Rewind to the part where we're _not_ going home tonight?"

Bianchi pulled her brother into her arms and gave him a big glomping, "That's right~ I told Shuan to get us a ride to his place and that we already told father so he either leaves us to the streets or picks us up."

Squalo sent her a flat look.

"And you expect him not to leave us on the streets? Have you even met the guy? He'd 100% leave us on the streets without an inkling of guilt."

"Oh, no. I'm relying on the fact that _Lulu_ won't leave us on the streets."

He snorted, "Oh please, you think the little bunny would have rein over that ass of a cloud?"

Her lips slid into a smug smirk.

"Yes, she would. Oh, and by the way, we're leaving Dino here. He's Cavallone so we can't get have him any further involved or risk blowing his whole famiglia up."

* * *

"Oh! Cosmo, welcome home." Lu greeted her little squirrel partner. He squeaked happily in reply, holding out the folded paper towards her.

She crouched before him and tilted her head curiously, "Hmm, what's this?" she took the offered item and peeled it open.

_Dear Lulu and Shuan,_

_Bianchi here! Thanks for the update. It's so sad that you're not coming back to school but it's okay, if you're safe, we're happy._

_We had a little issue, though. We were trying to find information about you guys and accidentally crossed ways with the Vongola heir. I'm more worried about him getting both us and himself killed because he really seemed like the type._

_We bumped into Lu's friend, Dino too._

_Btw, we're coming over. Can you grab us a ride? We already told our parents we weren't going home tonight._

_Much love 3_

_~ Bianchi_

Shuan slipped the paper from her hands after reading it over her shoulder and scowled at the offending object.

"Bianchi, you sneaky ass." He hissed out.

Watari glanced at the pair curiously over the newspaper in his hands, "Your friends?"

Shuan released a deep sigh and dragged his feet over to Watari and begrudgingly handed him the note. The old man quirked an eyebrow as he scanned it over and frowned before handing the note back to the boy.

"It may be necessary for them to come over anyway, we'll need to discuss how to move around the heir and ensure their safety."

Shuan ruffled his own hair in frustration, "This is only going to get even messier, isn't it?"

Watari hummed, "That is indeed, most likely."

* * *

Mei, as the only other person that was physically an adult, volunteered to go pick up the children. With the current situation, it was a terrible idea to even suggest for Watari to do even though he would have happily done it if there were no others to do so.

Shuan tagged along so that they would know that this was the correct car and because he had every intention of using illusions to adjust what they could see out of the windows.

It was a necessary process so that they had no chance of giving away the location of their home.

They sat in the tinted window car when Shuan spotted the trio standing at the gate.

_'Get in the car, shark-ass.'_ He projected into Squalo's mind. Squalo jumped, being startled by the sudden intrusion.

_'VOIIII! W-what the fuck? Where the fuck are you cloud-ass?'_

Shuan mentally sighed, _'Walk forward, the first car on your left.'_

As if obediently following orders, Squalo moved his body along to Shuan's directions to the point where he was standing right in front of the passenger side window AKA right in front of Shuan without knowing it.

He bent over and peered through the glass. Shuan dragged his hand down his face, oh my god Squalo looked like an idiot.

_'I'm on the other side of the window, idiot. Get in the back.'_

Squalo looked relatively offended at the idiot comment but quickly waved the other over and got in the back.

Hayato looked around the car in awe, "Woah, nice ride…"

Mei just smiled at the boy before turning her attention to the road as she started up the car.

"_It's Watari's, he just lent it to me to pick you all up._"

Shuan sneered at Bianchi. "Cheap trick you used to get into the house, you're just lucky that Lu bumped into Cosmo before I did."

The girl rolled her eyes, "I'm sure you wouldn't have left us on the street anyway~"

Shuan huffed.

"Bold of you to assume I care."

"Shuan." Mei scolded, "_Be nice to your friends_."

He crossed his arms and stared out the window. "_Fine…_"

Her frown deepened, "_Try that again?_"

"_Yes, Mei-san…_" he grumbled.

She smiled, satisfied, "_Excellent."_

Hayato blinked at the woman, she looked oddly familiar. Shuan noticed the gleam in his eyes and replied to his obvious query.

"She's Kyoya's mom, that's why we're speaking Japanese. She understands Italian just fine but prefers to speak Japanese or Chinese."

Hayato's mouth formed an 'o' before shutting and he turned to stare out the window, watching the buildings fly by.

"Oh, and don't mess with her. She's the reason why Kyoya is Kyoya."

* * *

Shuan's smug smirk wouldn't vanish from his lips as he watched Bianchi's shoulder sag in depression.

The second the elevators door opened for them to enter the house Lu bolted over to hug little Hayato to death, leaving Bianchi in a sulking mess.

"Lulu~" she cried, feeling betrayed.

The girl sighed happily and nuzzled her cheek into Hayato's messy silver hair, "Yes, Bia~?"

Bianchi pouted. "I thought you loved me!"

Lu smiled brightly at her.

"I do! I love Haya-chan too~"

Squalo rolled his eyes at their antics, it was as if they hadn't met like 2 days ago or something.

_ 'They're here.' _Shuan informed Watari after he directed them where to put their shoes. _'Want me to bring them up to you?'_

A moment of pause.

_'No, bring them to the equipment lab. We can talk there are get them set up with precautions.'_

_'Alright.'_

_'Oh, please refrain from taking them to Croquant. I'd prefer to leave the man's dignity intact if you don't mind.'_

_'…fine.'_

If Watari could mentally chuckle, he definitely did it then.

As requested, Shuan led them to the lab where Kyoya was waiting and tinkering around with the settings of his tonfa.

"Kyoya," Shuan greeted his fellow cloud with a nod, walking right past him towards a different machine. Kyoya responded with a grunt, not even sparing him a glance and Lu skipped over to observe the adjustments he was expertly controlling.

Squalo and Hayato openly gaped at the variety of machinery in pure awe as they followed Shuan down the length of the room.

The equipment lab was a dim lit room yet glowed under the myriad of holographic, projection and screen lights that sourced from several different pieces of machinery.

Shuan punched in a few commands to the lit touch screen triggering several instances of rapid buzzing as the machine began to operate.

Watari graced them with his presence rather impressively not too long after. He flipped his phone shut as he strolled through the door.

"I've informed Reborn of the situation. He's erased Dino's tracks in any Vongola reports, he won't be questioned and his famiglia won't take a hit."

Shuan nodded stiffly, his eyes never leaving the status information displayed on the screen "Thanks."

Watari walked up beside him, glanced at the screen and nodded approvingly at the boy's work.

The new-comer trio stared at the old man in bewilderment. This was the man that Vongola Nono had such an issue against, the famous inventor, researcher and informant known as Watari

The electronic doors opened once again to reveal the several baby-sized silhouettes belonging to the arcobaleno that Watari had left in the infirmary.

Verde groaned, "Why are there even _more_ people here? And kids, no less."

Luculia snickered as she carefully removed Kyoya's tonfa from the working space and handed it to the boy. Kyoya nodded a thanks.

"Come on, Verde! Embrace your inner extrovert~" She teased.

He scowled at her, "I don't have a fucking inner extrovert. I have an introvert and a **I-deal-with-your-bullshit-trovert**."

The arcobaleno that were walking alongside him halted mid-step and just _stared _at him in disbelief.

Fon melted into a chuckle, "…well, I can't believe he actually verbalised it."

Viper floated forward first. "Muu… I respect it. I too am that type of -trovert."

Fon craned his head in Viper's direction with his mouth slightly gaped.

"Oh—I… see."

Watari coughed to get their attention.

"Seeing as we have about 12 peopl—"

Verde looked so shook.

"…we have how many, now…?"

Watari narrowed his eyes at him, "Don't interrupt me, Verde. I said we have 12 people staying for the night and we will need to feed everyone and get everyone equipped provided found loyal." Verde huffed to the man's scolding but proceeded to shut up anyway.

The old sun sent the new children pointed looks.

"I don't particularly trust any of you three, but I know you care. I will equip you with defence equipment but no offensives, the second you betray that care and inform the Vongola of anything that could be detrimental to our family. We will know and you will have to deal with the consequences."

Watari walked over to and pulled out a draw-out table full of gadgets from the machine Shuan had been working at. It was namely accessories of all different types and he slipped one of the watches into his hand to show them.

"These will be your last line of defence. It is created based on information that you will likely never be able to gain access to without us so don't ask. It breaks you down and warps you here then builds you back up. Please retrieve one then you can go do whatever you wish, note that there is permanent surveillance and any destruction or snooping within the building will be taken as a serious offence."

With that information lifted off his chest, Watari left for his office. He was a terribly busy man as it was, the forever increasing pile of issues that were arising only made it significantly more difficult.

If Timoteo was truly desired to have his head whilst he was a lone freelancer, it would have been less of an issue because he was used to it. Now he had a myriad of extra variables to consider in the equation, several of which would cause him more pain that beheading.

He had children, women, fellow elements and _a sky_ to protect. It was no longer just him that needed to survive and because of that?

Everything just got so much harder.

* * *

Everyone stared at the man's fading form as he left.

The tense silence shattered as Shuan slid himself a bracelet from the table, making sure to grab the one he personalised for himself. It was double-banded and beaded with white and black beads, he had it made to be able to withhold isolated instances of flames within each bead.

He grabbed a pendant a lobbed it to Squalo which he, in turn, caught easily.

"It'd do you well to listen to Watari. I guarantee you that he isn't joking."

Squalo pressed his lips together into a frown.

"...Right."

* * *

Reborn had a very large appreciation for the security of Watari's base. The building was flooded with the flame markings of a sky and every resident was marked with the territorial flames of a cloud.

With the lack of a proper dining area, everyone was scattered about the main room.

The arcobaleno and Watari sat in the lounge, whilst Mei and the children gathered at the bar.

"What does this have to do with me?" Reborn asked.

Watari pressed his lips into a thin line before replying. "Nothing, however, I know of your established relationship with the Vongola and it would do you well to identify your standing point within this conflict."

Reborn went silent. He wasn't keen to have this conversation.

"I have no intention of breaking off any good relations with the Vongola. However, I have no intention of participating in anything to do with assassinating your ward."

Watari nodded slowly.

"At the very least, I can say that I will not take a hit on any person currently under this roof."

Fon smiled, "That's more than we could have possibly insisted on and I'm sure we are all extremely grateful that you would be able to do that."

Reborn pulled down the hem of his fedora.

"I have a lot of respect for Luculia as a sky." He admitted shortly.

Watari smiled.

"I appreciate that. As Fon said, that's more than enough."

When Lu popped her head around the corner, all eyes went on her and she sweat-dropped nervously. Clearly, she had near to no level of sneakiness around them.

"O-oh, uh, hi?"

Watari chuckled, "Hello, little flower. Come in, come in, I was just about to call you to ask you if you wanted to do a little task for me."

She walked out into clear view and tilted her head in question.

"Task?"

Watari walked over to the fridge and peeled off a sheet of paper from the magnetic note pad they had up. He then scribbled a few numbers on it and passed it to the girl who stared at it in bewilderment.

She looked at the paper then at him, then back at the paper and held it out, rotating it in different directions as if it would somehow make sense in a different angle.

"What's this…?"

Verde facepalmed. "It's a phone number, brat. It even had the dashes _and_ the country code so it should be obvious!"

Lu puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

"Hush, you."

Verde's jaw dropped, unbelievingly and Reborn snorted at the pathetic expression that Verde had displayed on his face.

Luculia averted her eyes back to the paper, "I can do this." She declared.

Watari nodded approvingly.

"Yes, yes you can. Now go call that number, it's Shamal's and simply ask him to come for a visit. Don't identify any other information, okay?"

"Okay!"

* * *

Vongola Nono sat comfortably at his office desk when his cloud decided to grace the man with his presence.

_Federico was on the verge of tears as he gritted his teeth._

_"The strongest form of lies is if you believe it yourself, right?"_

"Ah, Visconti. How are you this evening?" The man greeted his guardian.

Visconti closed the door lightly behind him. "Just fine." He replied shortly, "What have you summoned me for, Nono?"

"I have the need to discuss your latest mission–"

_Ring, ring!_

"–my apologies, allow me to take this."

Visconti nodded and sat himself in the seat over on the other end of the desk.

"Helloooo?" A young, bright voice spoke through the microphone. Visconti briefly went rigid in shock, his shoulders relaxing before Nono noticed a thing.

_"I–I met these people are school," The Vongola heir started, his voice cracking. "and they were looking for their friends. Luculia and Shuan, two newly enrolled students."_

_Visconti raised an eyebrow, "Why are you telling me this, Federico?"_

_Federico's hands clenched the fabric of his jacket._

_"Because they're innocents being hunted by the Vongola and I don't want them to get hurt."_

Nono frowned, "Who is this? I was not expecting a call at this time."

"Oh, sorry! I'm Luculia, and you?"

A flash of delight passed through Nono's eyes and Visconti felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach.

* * *

**Should I be referring to Vongola Nono as Nono or Timoteo on a basic standpoint? I honestly have no idea.**

**Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! I procrastinated a terribly large amount when proof-reading.**

**Review Responses:**

_**\- To Mitsu21:**_** Thank you so much for taking the time to review! **

**Ahh, I'm so happy that you think my writing for that chapter was good! I was seriously worried that I would butcher the mood somehow haha. By flashbacks, I actually meant the scene flashes between Nono and Lu and their somewhat parallel experiences (I edited the note from the previous chapter and put a little acknowledgement there for you too, so thanks for pointing that out! ^^ I very much appreciate it.)**

_**\- To ****Guest:**_** No not at all! (Sorry, bad pun) Thank you so much for taking the time to review, I'm stoked to hear that you enjoyed it and I hope that you'll enjoy any chapters to come! **

_**\- To yupino: **_**I'm thrilled to see how much thought you put into your review and I'll happily see to answering all of your questions ****(-ω-ゞ I'll list them out nicely one-by-one so it's a little easier to read.**

**1\. Will I keep to canon or go a completely different route?**

**There will be large elements of canon that will still remain, well... canon in the story. Elements that will remain include things such as the Mukuro arc and the Future arc where almost nothing will change. However, there will be several significant differences and an example of this would be the interactions of the Varia arc that are completely revamped because of previous meetings e.g. Squalo and Hayato.**

** Naturally, there will be heavy impactful events that occur beforehand that will both explain and influence any changes to canon.**

**2\. What am I going to do with the beautiful soul that is Hibari Kyoya?**

**Lu's flames are a bit complicated. She has a large issue with bond sensitivity, harmonization control and, as it was stated in an earlier chapter, her intuition is directly linked to her flames which prevents efficient and easy compression. Let's just say those bonding/harmonisation issues are going to be some of the most detrimental elements of the story.**

**Fear not, though, Kyoya will still be a part of Tsuna's guardian set.**

**3\. Spies?**

**Ohohohohohohoho~ this should have been partially hinted at during _this_ particular chapter but I'll refrain from saying much more for the sake of spoilers.**


	16. Friendship is Magic

**Special thanks to yupino** **for the very valid point and suggestion for the end of the last chapter! (I put that in) ****(✿◠‿◠)**

* * *

The second that their sky said her own name over the line, Fon evaporated the phone out of existence.

They were too late in letting the information slip but at the very least it removed any and all chances of the phone GPS being traced.

Watari looked severely disappointed and concerned.

He looked down at Luculia, "You did not listen to me." He scolded her sternly.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but no-one even flinched at the sight of them.

"I-I…" she had no words, no excuses for disobeying direct instructions. Her head lowered in shame, she honestly just forgot in the moment and now she felt terrible for making the mistake and inconveniencing them. "I'm sorry… I should have asked if Shamal didn't directly answer and I should never have said my name to a stranger."

Watari kneeled in front of her, "Look at me, Luculia."

She hated it when he called her by her full name with that tone, it always meant she screwed up. Lu dragged her eyes up to meet his.

His eyes were stern, she felt like a disappointment.

"I'm glad that you recognise your mistake and I believe that you will not repeat it. However, your issue now is that **you**, in particular, will now be identifiable both by voice and by name by the Vongola. I need to know what number you called. Do you remember?"

She stared up at him with wide eyes before her gaze darted to the side, "I think so…" she said quietly.

Watari made sure to conceal the paper that had the number he passed her from her line of sight as she recited the number from memory. Watari ran his eyes over the written numbers as she spoke.

A perfect match… then why?

He sighed and Lu's head snapped in his direction, her expression showing high-levels of concern. He dropped a hand on her head, "You called the right number, it's fine."

"When have you met Shamal in public, brat?" Verde asked, "It's very possible that they set something up to redirect the call, but the window for that to occur without Shamal realising and adjusting to the situation would be extremely slim."

"I only saw him the first time with Watari and a second time at the hospital where I met Reborn."

Verde hummed. Quite the while ago, that was.

Leon crawled onto Reborn's finger and shifted into a phone, "I'll call him and see if the same thing happens. It's not unknown that I have a relatively good relationship with Shamal so it shouldn't matter if it gets redirected."

_Ring, ring… Ring, ring… Ring, ring– beep._

"Hello?"

Reborn's eyes shadowed over, "Nono, I called this number with the intention of speaking to Shamal. Why are you answering this and where is he?"

"Reborn? My apologies for the inconvenience, you've been caught up in an observation of sorts. "

"An… observation, you say?"

"Yes, and my apologies once again. I will redirect you over to Shamal now."

Vague and evasive, however, not uncommon in the Mafia.

"…Don't do this again, Nono. I don't appreciate having my calls redirected and my time wasted, if this happens again, I will have to deal with the line myself."

Reborn could almost hear the frown in his silence.

"I will be sure to inform you beforehand if I need to do anything of the sort again. Good evening, Reborn."

Smoothly deflection. Reborn wanted to chuckle, it was a fine play indeed with no promises made.

"Good evening, Nono."

The line went flat for a moment shortly after.

_Beep– Ring, ring–_

"Yeello?" Shamal's familiar flamboyant voice greeted.

"**Shamal.**" Reborn borderline scolded.

Nervous laughter rang from the other end of the line. "…Haha, how can I help you Reborn?"

"You can help me by keeping track of all your contact lines more closely. Your phone line was redirected straight to **Vongola Nono**."

"…What? What happened?"

"You remember the baby-sky that I met at the hospital in Capo?"

"Yeah, Luculia-chan… right? She didn't try to call me, did she?"

The silence that followed his question built up dread. "…she did, didn't she? And she got redirected to Vongola Nono... shit."

Under Watari's concerned gaze, Reborn cocked his head in silent question. The old man nodded in response.

"She did and I'm putting you on speaker. Watari wants to speak to you."

Reborn placed Leon gently in the centre of the table.

"Shamal." Watari greeted.

"Watari," Shamal politely greeted back, "What are the effects that the redirected line had on Luculia?"

Watari gently placed his forgotten meal on the side, he had lost most of his appetite anyway.

"Timoteo seems to be very keen on searching for me and with how the previous meeting went through, I'd very much prefer to have my head and any of my ward's heads attached to our bodies. With the call, however, he has managed to identify her name and voice."

Shamal wasn't uninformed when it came to this particular conflict.

He breathed in sharply through his teeth, "Fuck… I know I can't apologise enough but right now, what can I do for you? Seeing as she tried to call me in the first place."

The children in the other room began to start pouring into the kitchen to clear their plates after finishing their meal. This wasn't a conversation they needed to hear nor should.

Watari waved them over quickly, "Leave your dishes in the sink, I'll deal with it later. Shuan, take them away and have them set up for the night."

Shuan nodded and turned on his heel to walk up the stairs. Bianchi's gaze lingered on Lu for a couple moments longer before Shuan went back and dragged her along with them.

Lu watched them leave with longing in her eyes, but she knew that she had to stay, it was partially her fault that they were in this situation too.

Watari turned his attention back to the conversation at hand.

"I need you to come in and look over an injured friend."

"That's fine but I'll need an escort. I have no idea where you actually live."

Lu's finger shot to touch the tip of her nose, "Nose goes!" she called.

Reborn and Fon immediately followed suit before the other two realised what was going on. Viper went next and Verde just stared.

Realisation dawned on his face. None of them were actually willing to even imply that they would ever make Watari go so he was stuck.

"Oh, fuck you all."

Suppressed laugher was heard from all around the table.

Even Shamal snorted from the other end of the line, "I'll see you tommorow, my lovely convoy."

* * *

The next morning, Watari called Shuan off to the side after breakfast.

"You want me to what now? And he lost a game of what?" Shuan blanched.

"I need you to take Verde to pick up Shamal because he lost a game of nose goes."

Shuan just snorted before bursting into laughter. Watari smiled, visibly amused and Verde glared holes into the boy.

"Yeah, sure. That should be fine."

Watari gave him an appreciative nod, "I apologise for asking you to do so many tasks as of late. I would have sent Lu but she's a bit of a high-profile person right now."

Shuan smiled understandingly.

"I don't mind, nothing I do could make up for you guys getting me out of Estraneo."

Watari walked the pair to the main lounge where there was a large screen mounted on the wall. Flicking the screen on, he pointed a red laser at the screen to a certain position on the electronic map he had just put up.

"This is where we are, and this is where you need to go. Verde has everything on a tablet so you shouldn't get lost. If you do, don't hesitate to call back."

Shuan adapted Lu's old and handy salute, "Yes, sir."

* * *

They, being Verde and Shuan, took off to the identified location. Verde took an easy ride on Shuan's shoulder since he honestly couldn't be bothered to walk and put in the effort to keep up.

"Do you know what he actually looks like?" Verde rolled his eyes.

"Of course, I know what he looks like." He paused for a moment, "I mean, I haven't met the man personally before but I know his face."

Shuan stuffed his hands into his pockets before turning a corner, "I mean… that's better than nothing_–_"

_Slam!_

Verde went flying off his shoulder when Shuan was shoved back by the impact. Shuan thought fast and immediately used his mist flames to catch the lightning arcobaleno before he hit ground.

This action, however, left Shuan himself to fall to the ground and he grunted upon impact. Verde landed easily on his feet after being provided the support.

"Ouch!" The other person groaned out, his baseball cap falling off his head.

The two boys sat there on the corner of the street just awkwardly staring at each other. Verde froze when he got a clear view of the person that Shuan bumped into.

"…Federico di Vongola, why are you here?" He asked slowly as his eyes darted around the premises and he took a brief glance at the small screen of his tablet, "and with no guards, no-less."

Federico scrambled to his feet, "I ditched them," he explained, "I made sure of it before I showed any intent of going anywhere. I just wanted to make sure Luculia was okay…"

Shuan narrowed his eyes, "Why wouldn't she be?"

Federico broke into a nervous sweat.

"Squalo and Bia–" Shuan raised a hand to stop him from continuing.

"I know that they said some stuff they fell like they weren't meant to but I'm more interested in _why_ you think she'd be in danger."

A dark brown haired young-man wearing a white blazer walked around behind the Vongola Heir and lifted him by the back of his collar to drop him on his feet.

"I believe I could potentially answer that question." The man claimed with a lopsided grin.

"Shamal." Verde greeted. Shamal replied with a simple nod before ushering the other boy to the side.

"Little Lu had a run-in call last night that put her on high-profile, I believe you should have been briefed about it."

Shuan nodded sharply.

Shamal transferred his gaze down to the Vongola heir, "You shouldn't be anywhere near here, Fed. Go home."

"But–" Shamal cut him off with a dismissive wave over his shoulder and walked past him.

Shuan watched this 'Fed's face fell after being completely ignored and dismissed, he felt slightly bad for the guy.

"I'll take him out of territory, they'll think I'm just a local showing him around."

Verde shrugged and perched himself on Shamal's shoulder much to his displeasure, "Alright, have fun."

The four split ways, half and half as Verde directed Shamal to their residence.

Shuan dragged himself to his feet and Federico sent him an apologetic smile, "Sorry, I didn't mean to knock you over."

He stretched out his back with a satisfying groan and started to walk ahead of Federico. The Vongola heir jogged briefly to catch up before falling into step with him.

"It's fine, partially my fault anyway, wasn't paying attention." Shuan paused before the road, glanced both ways then continued forward towards the beach.

"I'm Shuan, by the way." He introduced, "Fed, right? While you're in Capo you might as well enjoy it a bit. Everyone at home won't mind if I go a bit AWOL, I'm pretty sure they have tracking devices on me somewhere."

Fed sweatdropped, "Yeah, I'm Federico but you can call me Fed if you want, I don't really mind."

Shuan nodded absentmindedly and led Fed through the important parts of Capo, from the beach to the market to the church but Federico made it his personal mission to not get acknowledged at all. Shuan chose not to question him.

Initially, he reckoned he might've just been people shy but this was on a whole other level.

* * *

"Yo, Shuan!" The curly hair man greeted with a grin.

Shuan spared Stefano a brief glance as they walked towards his little shop.

"Hey, Stefano." He greeted briefly.

Curly blinked at the pair when they got closer, "Who's your friend?"

Shuan paused mid-step to explain but Fed didn't even flinch when he continued to walk down the street without him.

Ah… alright. I see how it is.

"Random person, don't know." He said vaguely before walking off in the same direction.

Stefano sweat-dropped and waved him goodbye half-heartedly, "Right…"

* * *

"Oh! Shuan. How are you doing this morning?" The cheerful blonde woman greeted him with her arms full of a crate of fruit.

She eyed the boy beside him with a kind smile, "And who's your new friend?"

Shuan stopped in front of the woman to talk but once again, Fed just kept walking and Shuan squinted his eyes at his fading form, trying to see where he was going.

Shuan promptly gave up with an exasperated and tired sigh.

"Ah, Bella Zia." He greeted, "I'm doing good."

Shuan glanced briefly at the space where Fed had been standing a few moments ago before shrugging nonchalantly and looking back at her.

"It beats me, never seen the guy before."

Luca blinked at him curiously as he sauntered off in the same direction as the boy before snorting lightly, "…alrighty, then."

* * *

Seeing Shuan finish talking to the woman from the corner of his eye, Fed slowed his pace to let his self-volunteered guide catch up to him.

That was, until a very intimidating looking muscly man waved at Shuan in greeting.

"How's it going, Shuan! Need anything for the week?"

Even though Shuan had a few steps to go before _just_ catching up to him, Fed walked off without sparing the pair a glance. Shuan sighed when he noticed this occurring but dismissed it shortly after in favour of politely greeting the grocer.

He nodded a greeting, "I'm good, how about you, Mario?"

The man sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm good, just woke up late so I gotta be prepared for a decent scolding."

Shuan patted the man on the arm sympathetically.

"Perhaps, I'll meet you in the next life."

Mario nodded solemnly with manly tears streaming down his face. "I hope so too, kiddo!"

* * *

After parting ways with Mario and turning the nearest corner, Shuan found Fed waiting patiently leaning against the wall in the shade. He walked up to him and stopped beside in form.

Fed craned his head to look at him, "You done with anything you needed to do?"

Shuan sent him a flat stare.

"You know, I took you to all these places so that they would recognise you and not kill you. I'm half positive they're all trained combatants and/or hitmen."

Fed blanched at him, "Wait–really?"

Shuan pressed his fingers to his forehead and sighed. His eyes averted to the side as he walked down the pathway, "One day, I'll make a friend that isn't a total idiot…"

"O–oi! What's that supposed to mean?!"

Shuan pressed a finger to the other boy's chest to accentuate his words.

"It means that I'm thirsty and you're a perfectly people-oriented heir to a giant corporation. In exchange for my relatively lovely services, you're going to get us some drinks from Mariana's pharmacy."

Fed awkwardly scratched his cheek, his eyes going anywhere but in eye contact with Shuan. "I sort've didn't bring any money with me…"

Shuan pulled out his wallet and stuffed a few bills into his hands before walking off first, Fed followed not long after. "Having no money isn't going to get you out of this one."

He pursed his lips in suspicion as they approached the building with a bright green cross lighting up the sign, "…what do you mean by that?"

Shuan dismissed his concern with a wave and leaned himself on the pharmacy building, but around the corner and clearly out of _sight_.

"Oh, Mariana is a little eccentric for me that's all. Feel free to grab whatever you want but I want a salted caramel trumpet, thanks."

"…right."

* * *

Federico's first impressions of the small pharmacy was that it was somewhat adorable yet sketchy at the same time. It had that happy air around it that a kids playground would have but that feeling was thoroughly mixed with the atmosphere of a witch's den.

It made him want to shiver despite the boiling hot weather.

"Ohohoho~ What do we have here?" An elderly feminine voice from behind him chortled out.

Fed's muscled froze up at the sudden intrusion and goosebumps appeared on his skin.

"I'm just, ah, here to grab some ice cream, if that's okay."

The old woman, whom Fed assumed was this 'Mariana', walked closer and closer behind him and Fed couldn't make himself move away even if he screamed at himself. Mariana chuckled behind his ear, her breath tickling his neck. "That's just fine, my sweet."

A shiver ran up his spine and he let out a nervous laugh as the woman pulled away from him. Her cane clicked against the ground at a constant rate whilst she moved towards the back room, behind the front counter.

She gestured him to follow, "Come with me, boy. You can come to get your sweets from here…"

It felt _wrong_ yet nothing about her was screaming danger but he still got the 'she's going to cook you up like the witch in hansel and gretel' vibes. The lack of a better sense told him to just go so he nodded and walked up to the back door that she was standing in front of.

When he got _just_ close enough, Mariana shoved him inside the room with a hearty clap to his back and slammed the door behind him.

Federico suppressed a terrified screamed and collapsed against the nearest wall when the door shut behind him. It was like a goddamn horror movie and he was a chicken for those.

Relief soon flushed over him when he realised where he was. It was just a little room that contained all the fridges and freezers, the ice cream Shuan asked him to get was literally in the cabinet right next to him. No cauldrons, no skeletons and no nothing.

He released a shaky sigh of relief and placed a hand over his pounding heart. "Holy shit…"

Mariana peeked open the door before grinning at the ruffled sight of him and bursting into gleeful laughter.

"I think I like you, kiddo. You got a name?"

Fed shakily stumbled onto his feet, "Federico, Signora." He stuttered out.

Her expression spread into a toothy grin as she patted him both enthusiastically and painfully on the back.

"Nice to meet ya, Feddy-boy. Go grab your ice creams, they're on the house for being such a good sport for this old lady."

* * *

Fed was basically a walking ghost when Shuan saw him return with both ice creams in hand. He suppressed a snort at the sight.

The spirit that was floating out of Fed's mouth was instantaneously absorbed back into his body just so he could glare at Shuan through his pale skin and spooked facial features.

"You 100% knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" he accused the smirking cloud after shoving the requested treat into his hand.

"Of course I did." He admitted easily while peeling open the packaging, "There _was_ a reason I didn't want to do it myself."

Fed grumbled under his breath, "Asshole."

"Heh, I love you too, **Feddy-boy**." At that point, Shuan didn't even try to conceal laughter and full on doubled over.

Federico's face flushed red, "Shut up!"

* * *

Shuan finally led the boy out of town and directed him to the nearest train station with some kindly donated cash. Whilst he would never admit it, Shuan found it a little sad to see the guy off and was relieved that the next Vongola boss was a nice person.

Federico was facing similar internal conflicts of feelings. He had a lot of fun hanging out with Shuan before he left but honestly would never tell the sadistic ass that.

Fed went home that night with a grin on his face, he had made a trustworthy and fun friend today.

Shuan, however, was more accustomed to concealing his delightful and fun adventures but Watari knew the boy better.

The old man raised a questioning eyebrow, the amusement that twinkled in his eyes didn't go unnoticed, "You have fun with your new friend?"

Shuan rolled his eyes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Watari not-so-discretely eyed the single band of white beads that sat around his wrist, the singular black bead twinkled cheekily against the lamp lights. An interesting adjustment from the double band he had designed indeed.

He chuckled to himself, "Of course, you don't."

Shuan sighed tiredly and dropped himself onto the nearest couch. "How's Croquant doing with Shamal?"

Watari poured himself a fresh cup of tea before moving to join him, "He's doing well. In fact, with how it's going, Croquant should be back on his feet in about a month or so. They're organised a good number of plans and backups in terms of nerve linking and basic machinery so far, so I think it's going well."

"That's good. I'm happy for him."

Watari hummed, "Indeed, I am too."

* * *

Visconti and Ganauche were exiting the same meeting hall when their _missing famiglia heir_ skipped past them with a gleeful grin on his face.

Ganauche blanched at him. "Oi, Fed. Where were you?!"

"I went on an adventure!" He called back down the hallway, "And it was a success, I had a lot of fun so don't mind me!"

Ganauche sighed in fond exasperation as he shook his head. "Honestly, that kid… I wonder where he actually went."

Visconti eyed the new piece of accessory that adored the kid's wrist before he disappeared out of sight.

"Hm… I wonder that as well…"

The single band of black beads glimmered in the sunlight that shone through the windows of the halls.

The singular white bead glowed the brightest out of them all.

* * *

**Shorter chapter but it's ok! Next time we'll be dancing through time. My babies are growing up ;-;**

**Review Responses:**

_**\- To tenimyuohtori:**_

**A very calculated guess you had there haha, nice job! Thank you so much for your review~**

_**\- To kelsey-kianna:**_

**Thank you for your review! As for the reunited friendship of Watari and Timoteo? Perhaps, perhaps not~ Whilst I have a decent timeline drawn up, nothing is set in stone. **

**However, if it turns out that they never do, I'd be still 100% keen on writing up an omake of the sorts to see how the situation could have changed.**

_**\- To moonlightkiss1515:**_

**Thank you a bunch for taking the time to review, I hope you enjoy!**

_**\- To yupino:**_

**Yes! I'm a bit of a sucker for different personality traits I've seen on the arcobaleno (e.g. Tsundere!Verde) and I'm probably very guilty of running ooc for them qq.**

**Is Skull going to make it in? ****I do intend on bumping into him at least once before we get deep into the conflict! Just not too sure exactly how and when yet.**

**The timeline is admittedly a little loosely planned but Lu should technically be 9 (Shuan is 13), any adjustments will be done by the time this chapter is put up. I had that written down somewhere to change when I first wrote the School Days chapter but I completely forgot to implement it. That should give Kyoya a good amount of time to assert dominance over Namimori before he reaches Namimori Middle School age.**

**I'll definitely put your omake/filler suggestion (Watari getting sick) into the list! It sounds like a great idea.**

**I took action on your suggestion too! Your point was very valid and something that I never thought about whilst I was droning along haha. I appreciate the constructive criticism/good advice.**

**Once again, I really appreciate your reviews! Whether they're long or short or even one-liners, I appreciate them so much. ****(9｀･ω･)9**

_**\- To Frozen Teen:**_

**Thanks for your review! and wow... I love the number of questions and speculations you have in this. It tells worlds about the thought you put into it~**

**Will Lulu harmonize with Reborn? **

**Spoilers hahaha but I can tell you that it won't be a major important point until perhaps _very _far in the future.**

**Where is Iemitsu?**

**Iemitsu is still the leader of CEDEF (the external Vongola) and as such, every little issue that Nono may have won't always be referred to him. Iemitsu is not currently aware of Lulu's existence but it will be pulled to the surface when she's a bit older. **

**Will Nono hate her?**

**Basically? No, not Nono at least and not for her heritage, as he still has very valid heirs both before her and after her. If anything, he'd see her as a nuisance rather than hate.**

**Are her flames stronger than Tsuna's?**

**They have their own very valid strengths and weaknesses but Tsuna's is arguably purer and his intuition is also stronger. Lu has strength in terms of volume and her ability to see "stars" but in order to do so, it would blind her from reality. In an actual fight, if she tried to attack someone's star while they were actively trying to take her down, she would honestly just die. **

**Tsuna, while he has less in terms of volume, has the purity along with the freedom to pursue growth and a solid set of loyal guardians for himself without the intrusion of semi-primaries or flame sensitivity to her degree.**

**Lu honestly has a very large set of issues regarding her flames that Tsuna doesn't have to experience so depending on your definition of strong, it could bend either way.**

**Will Reborn like Lulu more than Tsuna and will Tsuna be jealous?**

**Honestly, No. Reborn respects Lulu and her family, he respects her abilities and her morals. He will still be sent to tutor Tsuna and will undoubtedly develop a strong tutor-student relationship.**


	17. Dispersion

**There's a quite a lot of time progression that occurs in this chapter so I'll put in age stamps. I can put them into previous chapters if requested but otherwise, I'll keep them as it is.**

**Any arrows indicate age progression that occurs during the particular chapter.**

**The second half of the semester starts the day after tomorrow so expect updates to be significantly less frequent than the past few chapters. I also took up more hours at work (idk why, I probably hate myself lmao) so it really will be cut down _a lot_.**

**Edit 29/04 (Mobile) - Added scenes and attempted to clean up the flow. **

* * *

**_Age stamps:_**

**Hayato, Tsuna: 5 → 7 → 9**

**Kyoya: 7 → 9 → 11**

**Luculia, Bianchi: 9 → 11 → 13**

**Squalo, Shuan, Federico, Dino: 13 → 15 → 17**

* * *

After several reports from Squalo and Bianchi, Watari deemed it safe enough for Shuan to return to school. He hadn't been put on the radar and Fed said that checks were currently only been done on him because he had been seen to be associated with Lu. He would be fine if he returned by himself.

Lu was kept out of class due to the nature of that redirected phone call and was home-schooled, but her school friends always made sure to visit her often.

"Lulu! We're hoooome~" Bianchi called through the building as the elevator doors opened.

The grin on her face fell shortly after not receiving any answer. "Eh… where is–"

_Beep!_

"Sorry, Bia! I'm in the training–" A loud bang rang through the intercom. "–Kyo-chan, I'm trying to talk to Bia, you know, Bianchi? Yeah?"

A muffled male voice sounded from the other end, "The poison one." Another loud crash followed.

A few audible puffs of air escaped the girl, "Y-yeah, her. Anyway, I'm in the training room!" She called through the line before it went flat.

Shuan kicked off his shoes and quickly scaled the stairs towards his room, where he chucked his bag onto his bed from the doorway.

Kyoya had the choice to either return to school with Shuan or stay at home and learn alongside Luculia. Since it's Kyoya, he naturally chose the latter and both studied and trained at home.

Squalo rapidly jabbed the open button for the door and barged right in as soon as he could squeeze his body through.

"VOI! LET ME FIGHT TOO!"

Both Lu and Kyoya grinned at their new opponent as they stood in a parry with their own assigned wooden weapons.

They broke away, "Come at me, Squ-chan!"

Squalo dashed over to the training weapon rack and grabbed his sword before diving into the fight.

"VOIII, DON'T CALL ME SQU-CHAN!"

Federico and Dino had eventually integrated themselves into their group as well. Both Ganauche and Shuan vouched for Federico to be able to tag along and explained the lengths they would go to ditch his constant watchers. It took a bit of work to ensure that it was safe but Squalo relented after watching Shuan literally slam dunk a stalker/spy that was tailing them and seeing Fed come in the next day completely unaffected after talking Shuan out of trouble.

Fed earnt some mad respect points right there for getting Shuan out of Vongola's bad list with just his talent for words.

Whilst embarrassing, Federico gladly passed over all of his things to Ganauche at the beginning of _every_ school day so that he could rid belongings of any bugs or surveillance machinery. This included everything from his bag down to his underwear and was not something he looked forward to on a day-to-day basis.

With how many times Federico awkwardly knocked on the door of the staff room to get him, it began to raise a couple of eyebrows but one intimidating look from the 9th generation Vongola Lightning shut them down completely.

_Knock, knock! _

The door was slid open a few moments later and the familiar face of one of the other teachers poked her head out.

"Oh! Federico, what can we do for you? Here for Ganauche?"

Fed awkwardly looked to the side, "Ah, yes. Sorry for the interruption."

The woman dismissed his worry with a casual wave.

"It's no worries, really. If anything we can just blame Ganauche, it's usually his fault half the time anyway."

Ganauche spluttered.

"Hey, I resent that!"

Months of school, training and learning flew through days to weeks to months and to eventually years.

Everyone was progressing immensely in terms of physical, academic and flame training despite the fact that neither Dino nor Fed were permitted to enter even the general premises of Capo. As heirs of their own famiglia they trained with their own tutors and such, so it was perfectly fine if not a little lonely.

Things started to change after the year that marked Shuan's second year of study. The old 5S had morphed into 7SA as their class advanced rapidly through the years.

Bianchi didn't go to class that day and instead went straight to Sanctuario di San Vito in hopes of bumping into someone that could give her directions to get to Lulu's house. It was for their own safety that they weren't informed of the exact position of Watari's base or risk being interrogated for such information. The church was a common area that many of them would pass as it was in the central town.

"Father Nicolas!" The 11-year old called out to the pastor. It looked like he was preparing for the next mass when the girl barged in huffing and puffing. "Have you seen Stefano or Watari recently?"

Father Nicolas paused in his activities and turned to look at the girl curiously. A smile graced his face, "Hello there, Bianchi. Unfortunately, I have not seen either of them. What were you needing?"

Her expression fell, "Oh... I was hoping to go to Lulu's place. I needed some help but I don't know how to get there by myself."

"I see. If that's the case, young Kyoya passed by recently."

Bianchi perked up, "Really?!"

The pastor chuckled, "Yes, yes. I believe he was heading to Stefano's Café to bring home some snacks for lunch."

Bianchi's mood significantly brightened in relief.

"Thanks, Father Nicolas!" she called to him as quickly jogged towards the café across the street.

Nicolas simply smiled serenely and waved her farewell.

* * *

Bianchi barely caught Kyoya as he left the café.

"Why are you here?" he asked her bluntly with his hands full of takeout.

She spoke through heavy breaths, "I–I need… to talk… to Watari."

The boy turned on his heel and walked away but halted a few steps away. He glanced over his shoulder, "Well?" he drawled in a monotone, "Are you coming?"

Bianchi pushed herself back up into a straight stand in surprise before quickly following the boy. "Y-yeah, sorry." After his visible rejection, she didn't realise that he was actually going to help her until he verbalised it.

The walk to their residence was mesmerising to her, more so than usual. When she typically visited, they were dropped off by car at the gate and it seemed all normal besides the path the car took to get there.

Every day the route they took was different but it was all the more confusing when moving there on foot.

Bianchi kept her Kyoya within clear view at all times.

It was unknown to her that Viper was lingering in the area. He received the notification from Watari that Kyoya had a tag-along friend and was requested to muddle up the roads and paths from her view. That, of course, cost him about 150 euros for disrupting his work but it was a one-off thing since Shuan usually would be the one to do it.

Watari, Lu, Mei and Fon were waiting for the pair at the elevator entrance to the house and Viper had deterred himself back to his office when they had safely positioned themselves in the lift.

"Bia? What are you doing here? Don't you have school today?" Lu questioned her curiously.

Bianchi smiled weakly at her briefly but her expression fell completely as she lowered her gaze to the ground.

"I…I didn't know that Hayato didn't realise that we didn't share the same parents. I didn't know how much our father was keeping from him and… and he ran away when he found out that his real mother died."

Her gaze shot up to meet Watari's in a panic, "I don't know where he is and I'm really worried! He could have been kidnapped or killed or…" she sighed in anguish, "I don't think he likes me at all anymore…"

Lu pulled the girl into a hug, her flames, that she now had much better control over, surrounded the girl in a comforting blanket. It helped Bianchi even out her breathing to a comfortable pace.

Watari looked sympathetically at the young girl before tousling the girl's hair comfortingly. An amused smile bloomed on his expression when the girl's eyes shimmered at him with a hopeful look.

"If you're asking whether I've bugged your little brother, then yes I have."

Bianchi's mood did a giant 360. Her eyes visibly lit up and she tightly glomped the girl that was hugging her. It suddenly went from Lu hugging Bianchi to Bianchi strangulating Lu.

Lu let out a muffled groan, "I camf breaph!"

She let the sky go before rubbing her own cheek against Lu's cheek affectionately. "I never doubted you guys at all! You're the best~"

Lu just sat there with a flat 'ehhh...' expression as she was manhandled by all this appreciative love and affection.

* * *

Watari brought both Bianchi and Lu to his office and pulled up Hayato's tracking coordinates on one of his many screens.

Both girl's eyes locked onto the screen as Watari spoke.

"He's…" Watari sighed and pulled out his phone.

The girls simultaneously looked at him then tilted their heads to convey their confusion before exchange looks and shrugging.

_Ring, ring!_

"Hel–" Watari promptly cut the other man off.

"Shamal, bring Hayato to the house, would you?"

"–Oh, uh" Shamal pulled the phone away from his ear and covered the microphone so Watari could only hear the muffled conversation from the other end of the line.

"Brat, wanna go to Luculia's house?"

"Am I allowed to say no?"

"Hahaha, no. Not really."

"Then, no" Hayato grumbled.

"Well, that's unfortunate for you."

They could basically hear the smirk in Shamal's voice when he placed the phone back against his ear.

"Yeah, we'll be there in 20." He confirmed before cutting the line.

Watari leaned back in his chair with a satisfied and amused smile. He tilted his head to look at Bianchi, "Will that be satisfactory for you, young lady?"

She beamed at him, "Yeah, thanks!"

* * *

Shamal dragged Hayato into the building by the back of his collar. He didn't even attempt at fighting against Shamal's grip, having tried and given up long before, but still grumbled in his hold with his arms crossed over his chest.

Bianchi hid herself as much as she could behind Watari in hopes that she wouldn't scare her brother away again.

Lu bent down with her hands on her knees, "Hayato?" she called out to him.

The boy didn't even think of looking her way at all.

She frowned and stood to send Shamal a questioning look.

The doctor sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "Some familial issues." He explained, "I haven't had the chance to talk to him about it but I think letting his sister do it might be for the better."

Hayato's arms tightened around his body as he turned his whole form to face the elevator door, away from the group. He was visibly upset.

"I don't trust her, she lied to me and never told me about my mom. It wasn't fair…" he said quietly.

Bianchi clenched her hands around the fabric of her skirt and suppressed a sob. She hated this, she wished she realised what was going on sooner so she could have done more.

"Did you consider the case that perhaps she never knew?" Shamal suggested lightly, "She's your father's child as well, it's not unlikely that you were provided similar treatment."

Hayato dragged his eyes up to meet his teacher's and Shamal gazed down at him to meet his eyes. Hayato's eyes quickly averted to the side, "No… I didn't–"

Bianchi breathed in sharply and forced herself into Hayato's line of sight. Her eyes welled up with tears as she spoke through any built-up sobs.

"I'm sorry!" she cried, "I didn't know you didn't know. I wasn't told…"

_"I hate you, Bianchi! You liar, you lied to me for my whole life. To think I actually trusted you…"_

She shook her head to rid herself of her tears, her eyes filling with understanding and willingness.

"If you… if you want to leave home… I'll help you do it! Just–just don't run away anymore, don't run away where I don't know you're safe, don't live on the streets, don't join gangs, don't do drugs. Anything but that! But-but if you want to do drugs just tell me, I'm good with poisons I'll make them for you!"

Shamal flailed his arms around in a panic, "W-wait, don't go making drugs now–" Lu kicked him in the shin and he hissed in pain. She placed a finger in front of her lips in the universal 'shut up' sign and Shamal raised his hands to surrender.

Hayato sat on the ground staring at his sister with shocked wide eyes. Bianchi rubbed furiously at her eyes with one hand, her other clutched at her clothes.

"Just please… please call me nee-chan again…"

Guilt filled his body and his shoulder trembled. "I–I'm sorry, nee-chan…"

The girl launched herself at her brother, pulling him into the biggest hug she could possibly manage.

"It's okay, Hayato. It's okay. I'll get you out of there."

Hayato wrapped his arms around her torso and hugged her back.

Shamal awkwardly hovered around their touching moment.

"Uh... don't make drugs for yourselves, okay?"

Watari exasperatedly sighed and turned his head to the side with a hand on his face.

Shamal sweat dropped at him before turning back to the sibling pair and awkwardly patted them on their heads.

"You know what? Just, uh, don't do drugs. That'd be great."

* * *

Bianchi was sent back to school after the ordeal such that she would deal with the lightest possible punishments for skipping class.

Luckily for her, Squalo and Shuan had already arranged a mitigation note with Ganauche and the principal immediately after realising that she wasn't coming to class. They knew that she would have at least texted one of them, or Ganauche would have been notified earlier if she was sick, but neither of those things occurred.

They went on to explain how it involved family issues and that it wasn't her fault that she wasn't in class but at the time it really was just Shuan running his mouth off with whatever came to mind. Ganauche was borderline impressed with his improvisation skills and the principal complied with their ply given a decent chunk of social intimidation and reasoning. Bianchi was left with no marks on her record.

"And who are you here to excuse from being late today...?" the principal drawled.

"Bianchi." Squalo supplied helpfully.

The principal pulled out a file and jotted down some words on a notebook, he shuffled himself in his seat to make himself more comfortable, this was going to be a long ride.

He leaned back with a tired sigh, "Alright, boys. State your arguments."

The four boys exchanged looks, basically urging any other person to take the lead. Needless to say, it was a long moment of silence.

Fed sighed, "Rock, paper, scissors?"

The other three nodded solemnly.

"Rock, paper, scissors." they agreed.

Shuan lost that one, the poor guy.

This, however, wasn't the first time one of them had skipped class and the others had covered for them either. One-time Squalo just flat out overslept and Fed was the one to relieve his record of that late mark by using his status and overpowering ability to make people suffer with his words. After several instances of this occurring and after seeing how well their negotiation and professional social skills were developing through this, Ganauche never sought to stop it at all. He just shrugged it off, it was a good learning experience.

They were surprised to hear what had happened with regards to Hayato but were relieved none-the-less that it had ended out all okay.

Until a home had been found for Hayato, Watari graciously allowed him to stay with them and learn alongside Kyoya and Luculia such that his education wouldn't be put on a giant pause.

However, that didn't last long, nor did it need to do so as Kyoya's father contacted Fon later that same week.

Hibari Shin, Kyoya's father had taken the past 4 years to completely take over the Namimori police force and his family could not be prouder of him.

Kyoya and Mei now had a home in Japan that they could live in with the father of the family, but they couldn't help but feel a little sad when they informed the rest of the household.

It was heart-breaking for Mei to pull Kyoya away from his new found friends but it was something that they needed to do. They couldn't impose of Watari's kindness for longer than necessary.

"Will you come back to visit one day? Can we come to visit you too?" Lu asked, her eyes shining with hope.

Mei smiled at the young girl and bent down to pet her hair, "Of course you can, you are free to visit any time you can."

Lu smiled sadly and gave Mei a big hug around her torso.

"I'm going to miss you a lot, you know." She confessed with her face stuffed into, and muffled by Mei's clothes.

Mei laughed, "I'll miss you too, Lu-chan. This isn't 'goodbye', okay? It's 'see you later'."

Lu turned her head up and grinned. "Yeah, see you later!"

Hayato stood awkwardly to the side of Lu as she said her farewells. Squalo and Bianchi came by earlier with Watari's guidance to say their farewells along with Shuan before heading to school and Hayato was stuck somewhat third-wheeling-ish for the final farewell.

It made him even more boggled and weirded out when the trio bid him farewell too in the morning but he supposed that maybe it was just bye for the school day?

Kyoya stared at the other boy directly making Hayato feel even more awkward than before. "Uh… Stay safe, Kyoya." He said with hints of embarrassed pink dusting his cheeks.

Kyoya narrowed his eyes at him with suspicion to conceal his confusion.

"What are you talking about, puppy?" Hayato tilted his head and squinted his eyes right back at him.

"What? I just said stay saf–"

Watari gently placed a smaller suitcase next to him, the sound created when the wheels hit the floor made Hayato snap his neck towards the source.

Hayato darted his eyes between the luggage to Watari to Kyoya then Mei and back.

"Wait… what?" he asked in bewilderment, looking all around him at everyone in hopes of getting an explanation.

"I spoke to the Hibari family and they would happily allow you to go live with them in Namimori, Japan." Watari explained with a chuckle, "Bianchi informed me how you wished to experience more of your mother's culture, and I believe this would be an excellent place to begin."

Hayato locked eyes with Mei.

"And–and this is okay?"

Mei nodded a very serene and Fon-like nod, "You are very welcome to stay with us, Hayato-kun. That is, only if you want to."

Watari nodded in agreement. "Yes, only if you want to. No-one is forcing you to go, we can always look for something in closer proximity if you find this uncomforta–"

"I'll go!" Hayato exclaimed, unintentionally cutting Watari off. The old man dismissed the rudeness and blamed it on the rush of the moment. The excited grin that elated his features made it all worth it. "I'd love to go!"

He ran up to give Watari a big hug around his legs, "Thank you for everything!" Watari tousled his hair with a smile.

Luculia grinned and pulled both him and Kyoya into a big group hug after Hayato broke away from his Watari-hug. "Stay safe, you two! And don't forget to keep your training up, I expect our fights to still be fun!"

Mei, Kyoya, Hayato and Fon waved the pair a happy goodbye before they left, and Lu could do nothing but grin and wave back.

But when they turned the corner and were completely out of sight, the corner of her lips twitched down into a frown. Her gaze fell to the floor at her feet. She was happy for them, yet something within her was screaming with dread. She brushed it off, there was nothing wrong with sending Hayato to a good home.

Three months later, after determining that Lu had much better control over her flames and could micro-manage herself, they deemed it safe for her to leave the sanctuary of the home.

It was a little camping trip that Watari had organised within the La Pineta camping village not too far off from the beach of Capo. Mariana owned the land and had paid others to manage it for her. She ensured that the area was completely safe for them to be alone within and had security measurements to back that up for the time that the children resided there.

"Whaaaat? Watari said what now?!" Shuan rolled his eyes at the stupified looks on the face of his friends.

"As I said, Watari organised a perfectly safe camping trip for us in La Pineta. Even Lu is allowed to go and you guys get to meet her."

The other boy's jaws dropped and Shuan facepalmed with a sigh, "To think you guys are 15..." he gestured at the singular girl in the group that was texting her father furiously with an elated smile.

Shuan smiled lightly at her antics, "Look at Bianchi, she's 11 and reacting better than you _teen boys_ are."

"Voi! What's that supposed to mean?!" Squalo yelled in offence.

Shuan dismissively waved with a smirk, "It means you need to up your game, shark-ass."

"Shut up! I'm going smash you in everything we do, cloud-ass!" He claimed confidently.

Bianchi snickered, "Kinky."

Squalo's face flushed in anger and embarrassment as he waved his sword around furiously. The others smartly backed up when the familiar blade was pulled out _again._

"I'm fucking straight, poison bitch!"

Fed huffed out a laugh, "Don't be so quick to judge, Squalo."

"VOIIII!"

* * *

Fed was nervous, to say the least. The rest of them had met Luculia before and were decently well acquainted with her, except, well, _him_.

It was less nerve-wracking trying to convince his father to let him out of his carefully arranged and organised sight for the single weekend.

Federico had Dino pick him up from the mansion and had Romario explain that they were going on a school trip like Dino was told to tell him. Like he had been told several times over if they believe it then it's technically not a lie that intuition can pick up on. It was easy from then on out to get to their camping location.

"...so what's she like?" Dino tilted his head at him.

"What? You mean Luculia?"

Fed laughed lightly, "Yeah, who else?"

Dino shrugged and sheepishly grinned. "I dunno, like I told you ages ago, I was mostly unconscious whenever I saw her no thanks to Reborn–"

The said arcobaleno's head popped out of Dino's duffle bag and he pointed a Leon-gun at Dino. "You mean 'much thanks to Reborn'?" His eyes darkened threateningly, "**right?**"

Dino backed up at the sight of his tutor and nervously grinned under the imminent threat of the gun pointed at his head.

"Y-yeah, I meant that Reborn... ahaha. You can put the gun down now...?"

Reborn frowned but let Leon transform anyway, "Don't tell me what to do."

Dino released a shaky sigh of relief.

Their meeting point for the trip was at San Vito lo Capo beach since the camping village was a short 300-metre walk from there and so Dino asked Romario to drop them off at the nearest train station.

When they arrived, they, including Reborn who was sitting on Dino's head, waved Romario goodbye as he drove away. Their next step was to walk directly through the train station and take the bus to the beach.

Reborn silently fanned himself from the heat as the two boys did all the walking.

"Reborn, do you plan on tagging along for our whole weekend trip?" Fed asked while they sat on the bus.

Reborn made a noise of acknowledgement, "While it's fine that you guys are going on a trip, I'm coming to make sure Dino doesn't slack from his training."

"Oh, and not to protect us or anything?"

"I'm the last resort for several things, though it's highly unlikely anything will actually happen."

* * *

Lu and Bianchi waved at them happily as they arrived and Shuan greeted them with a half-hearted salute. Both Lu and Bianchi _beamed_ when they saw Reborn and the hitman let the two young girls fawn over him.

It was both a slight relief to Fed that Reborn took all the attention, he wasn't really looking forward to the awkward introductions.

Reborn clearly somehow realised this and pointed the girls to him, "Luculia, you haven't met Federico, have you?"

The girl shook her head and smiled politely at Fed. Pink dusted over his features at just how _bright_ and friendly her smile was, he didn't want to say it was pretty but it was pretty... pleasant to look at? Yeah.

The snort Reborn let out made Fed feel like his mind was being read by the arcobaleno. "–I am reading your mind."

Fed froze, "Wait, what?"

Dino groaned and Reborn smirked. "Yes, I read your mind, now introduce yourself. A good mafia boss is polite to the ladies."

"Ah, right." Federico cleared his throat as Dino spluttered in the background about something along the lines of 'but you aren't his tutor!'. Reborn replied with a 10-ton hammer.

Fed turned to Luculia and smiled, "It's nice to meet you, Signorina. My name is Federico di Vongola but you can call me–"

Lu perked up, "Rico!" Cosmo, who was on her head echoed her tone in a happy squeak.

He sighed through a smile, "Yeah, I suppose that can do too."

Lu grinned, "It's nice to meet you too, Rico! My name's Luculia but you can call me whatever you want."

"How about Lia?" He suggested.

"Sure!" She agreed before she pointed down the street from where they were standing, "La Pineta is down there, Watari showed me where to go yesterday afternoon so we wouldn't get lost."

* * *

They arrived at their cabin not too long after and dropped off all their baggage. They had been friends for so long that none of them had any concerns about sharing rooms.

Sleeping arrangements, though...

Bianchi raised a finger to pause the arguments, "Ladies first!" she claimed before dashing into the biggest room.

Lu grinned evilly and bolted right after her leaving the boys stunned in place.

"VOI!" Squalo yelled as he stormed into the room they 'claimed'. "I don't see no fucking ladies anywhere."

Lu pouted, "So cruel to us delicate ladies, Squalo~"

Reborn, dressed like a girl, sat on the comfortable mattress next to the girls and sighed airily. "Tut, tut, such rude boys. They should have more manners for us ladies, don't you think?"

Bianchi wiped a fake tear.

"Yes, yes they should..."

Squalo literally just sighed in defeat and walked out the door. He grumbled incoherently under his breath for the whole way out.

The girls burst out into laughter barely a second later.

Dino patted him sympathetically on the shoulders, "Girls are scary?" he offered rather awkwardly.

Squalo scoffed.

"More like your tutor dressed as a girl is threatening."

* * *

Truth or dare, Would you rather, Liar and Go Fish were just some of the games that they wasted away their times playing. Now... they were playing more card games, more specifically the one that was famous for ruining friendships AKA Uno.

The sky was dark and the cabin lounge was dimly lit by the fireplace that burned beside them, the flickering flames enhancing the camping atmosphere.

and–

"Uno~" Lu exclaimed smugly as she eyed the two cards in Shuan's hands.

The boy rolled his eyes as Bianchi took her turn. "Only, for now, Lu" he replied ominously.

Bianchi pouted, "Geez, Lulu! Stop bullying me~"

She laughed out a cheeky 'ohohoho~' with a hand in front of her mouth. "We'll see~ We'll see~!"

Squalo slammed a card on the pile, "Uno, bitches!"

When it came back around to Shuan, he placed down a cheeky card +4 with a grin. "See what you think about tha–"

The empty glass beside of crashed onto its side against the wooden floor as Lu fell forward and collapsed to the ground. Her hands clutched at her chest.

Shuan's smile dropped and his expression morphed into one of absolute despair and panic, "Lu!"

The cards were long forgotten and left in a messy pile.

Her breaths grew short and rapid as she sobbed silently. It wasn't long before her consciousness fell into the void. The muffled chaos of her friends' worries hovered around her but she couldn't make out any of their words.

The last thing she remembered of that night was the comforting feeling of a blanket of sun flames hovering over her skin.

The night ended when Lu laid limp in Bianchi's arms with blank eyes that stared into the abyss of nothing. If Bianchi couldn't feel her shallow breathing she would have been convinced that her best friend had just died in her arms.

She woke up the next day as if nothing had ever happened yet the lingering loneliness that floated around in her chest never disappeared until she trained herself to ignore it. She simply smiled through her discomfort as if it never bothered her.

None of them brought up the events of the previous night up in favour of having a nice and peaceful breakfast. The meal was catered and poison tested beforehand.

Bianchi took a nice big bite of her croissant, chewed and swallowed, "So, did any of you have dreams?" she asked to break the silence.

Dino made an affirmative noise through his mouthful of bread and they just stared at him for a moment to wait for him to finish and swallow. Thankfully it didn't take him long to do so.

"I had this dream that I was walking around in a really weird shirt that had a bunch of stalks of corn on it."

A pause of silence.

Lu raised an eyebrow, "...What?"

Shuan waved off her concern. "Continue," he prompted.

Dino cleared his throat, "Yeah, I was wearing that top and some stranger came up to me and was like 'what are you wearing?' and–and" Dino burst into laughter before he could finish his sentence.

"Oi, finish the story!" Squalo complained.

Dino took a moment to calm himself down from his giggles, "Right, right... He was like 'what are you wearing' and I replied 'it's a crop top!'" he snorted, "I laughed so hard that I woke myself up."

Lu chuckled at the joke and Shuan covered his face with his hands as the rest of them cringed away, oh my god he's never met such an idiot before.

Squalo exploded, "VOI! Are you fucking kidding me? I THOUGHT YOU HAD A NIGHTMARE WHICH IS WHY YOUR SUPPRESSED NOISES WOKE ME UP."

"Wait–wait!" he tried.

"And your idiot ass was actually just giggling about crop tops?!"

Lu burst into amused giggles and Federico smiled fondly at the scene before him. How he wished it could stay fun like this forever...

* * *

_"Hey, Kyoya? Doesn't that kid look kind of like Lu-nee?" Kyoya glanced at the person Hayato pointed out from the corner of his eye._

_They sat under a well-sized tree within their primary school grounds._

_The child looked weak, yet kind like Lu-nee. He was clumsy and no-where near as strong as his older-sister figure had been at his age but he was undoubtedly similar with regards to his dormant flames._

_"He's a Herbivore," Kyoya replied shortly. _

_Hayato hummed, "I suppose he is. We should probably keep an eye on him in case he's important."_

_Kyoya let out a sigh, "Hn. Don't tell me what to do."_

_Hayato rolled his eyes exasperatedly._

_The bell rang for final class moments after and the pair split ways._

_The kid's name was Sawada Tsunayoshi, Hayato learned. He was in his class but until then, Hayato had never noticed him outside of the crowd of significantly less intelligent brats._

_Hayato kept his distance from the boy, doing his own thing, sleeping in class after finishing his worksheets within the first five minutes then spending his lunch in silence with Kyoya. It was perfectly uneventful for a very long time. _

_He would go home with Kyoya to where Mei-san would cook them up some dinner before sending them to bed. They would only occasionally see Kyoya's father but that never bothered any of them._

_It was absolutely peaceful until a familiar faced child stumbled out of the tree he usually sat under with Kyoya and fell right onto the aggressive cloud. _

_Tsunayoshi rolled off Kyoya with an 'oof' before falling flat on his butt._

_Both Kyoya and Hayato let out aggressive sighs for their own individual reasons. Kyoya was annoyed that he was just used as a landing cushion and that his peace was disrupted whilst Hayato was just… not feeling it._

_The little boy reminded them of a bunny when he cowered away from their resting annoyed faces._

_"T-Tsu-kun is sorry…" Hayato frowned._

_"You're 7, aren't you? Like me?" _

_Tsuna nodded owlishly. He seemed very air-headed to the point where it was concerning, maybe a mental illness? _

_Tsuna picked up the book he dropped off to the side and Hayato eyed it with interest. He pointed at it, "Can you... read that thing?"_

_"It's Tsu-kun's book! Tsu-kun tries... but is fuzzy. Mama says Tsu-kun is Dame..."_

_"Can you try though?"_

_Tsuna nodded, "Uh... T-the d-deg? ran... te... dehs? What's a dehs?" Hayato grimaced, sounded like dyslexia._

_Hayato hoped he wouldn't regret this, he pitied the kid and only wanted to help. Preserving peace and being helpful were things that were always encouraged to him anyway. There was almost no risk to him aside from a potentially annoyingly attached kid._

_"It said, 'The dog ran to the shed.'" he corrected lightly, "Also, It's not 'Tsu-kun', Tsunayoshi, you say 'I' instead. You're old enough to not speak in third person now."_

_The boy tilted his head, "Tsu-kun doesn't get it…?"_

_Kyoya dragged open a single eye to observe the situation. A baby-sky with an ignorant mother if this child was going to be a part of their pack he needed proper caring._

_Hayato looked to Kyoya for help but the cloud just rolled over to his other side. The puppy could deal with academics. Hayato deadpanned, Unhelpful much. _

_He turned back to Tsuna._

_"That's '**I** don't get it'" He corrected._

_"…I don't get it…?" Hayato's eyes brightened up at the achievement._

_"Yeah, like that!"_

_The duo took Tsuna under their wing from that afternoon forward. He was an aggravatingly slow learner that needed a lot of guidance but luckily for him, they had a lot of time._

_A bubble of guilt exploded suddenly during a study session around 3 months into the school year and something within their chests felt uncomfortable and gross. They brushed away the feeling and dismissed it. It was indescribably terrible, but they wouldn't let things such as simple anxiety block them from pursuing what they wanted. It was probably a passing thing anyway..._

_What would have been seen as admirable determination and perseverance for success out of the keen eye of flames was a clean slice of a bond. A sky bond that had been overpowered by their new-found little friend that they were determined to help integrate comfortably into the world._

* * *

It was another two years later when Squalo had dropped out to defeat Tyr, the Sword Emporer for his title.

After he has succeeded, he found a worthy companion in Xanxus, Vongola Nono's youngest son and appointed him the new leader of the organisation. Viper joined him shortly after to infiltrate the Vongola through its independent assassination squad, the Varia but also because the pay was just too good to pass up.

Dino had also been pulled out to take the reins of his own famiglia upon the imminent death of his father.

Their small little family was falling apart but Lu felt as if she didn't have the right to stop it. They were her friends, they had their own lives to live and she would never try and stop them. She never wanted to and it just wasn't her right.

It was that same year when there was a significantly more violent reaction of the same symptoms was inflicted on Luculia. The screams of agony to the light leaving her eyes to blankness. It was in the middle of the day and Watari could only stay silently by her side and provide as much comfort as he possibly could. Both Reborn and the children had told him of the event and there were no visible lingering symptoms that he could analyse. He had to only hope that it would never happen again.

Clearly, they weren't so fortunate. Her body would be a breathing corpse until she finally fell asleep and woke up in the next few hours. She was noticeably sadder but she brushed away the feelings in acceptance. She knew why it was happening because she could feel it, yet she had no desire to stop it.

She would only prevent herself from even tempting a bond with anyone else.

Lu shifted her vision to look at the familiar stars of the home. She hadn't done so in a long, long time and it gave her a sense of comfort to see familiar souls safely at home. She could see the bright star of Watari's as he sat to her side, she could see the curious green flame that belonged to Verde as he hovered around his lab and she could see Fon's shining red star shine as he trained.

She wrapped herself around Watari's star, basking in its warmth.

"This is killing you, little flower." He whispered softly, stroking her hair back and away from her face.

"It's okay, Watari." The newly named teen smiled sadly at him, "It's okay… They found their home and I'm happy for them. It's not my right to contain them…"

She closed her eyes to left herself fall to some very welcome rest.

Watari sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the single mirror that adorned the blank white walls. He clenched his jaw to prevent any spread of unneeded emotions to his sky as he watched her reflection flash to an image of her pale and sunken corpse.

He needed to solve this issue before it spread further, he needed to find the source of it. He knew that Lu knew about it, but refused to talk about it.

Chaining her friends to herself was never something she would ever dream of doing, she would never make them do anything that would prevent them from reaching their goals.

It was just unfortunate for her that while strong, her flames didn't have the natural ability to lock her elements into place and into loyalty, not until she trained them to do so upon her command.

But even so, she didn't have the heart to lock them in place if they wanted to leave. She was simply too accepting and everything from her personality to her flames presented it with a dreaded amount of clarity.

Watari was determined to try to save her until he took his final breath.

* * *

**Extra Scene: Need a hand? **

Shuan and Fed had decided to pay Squalo a visit in his new work environment, the Varia. Xanxus wasn't too happy about the sudden intrusion but they really couldn't care if he hated it or not, they just wanted to visit their long-time friend.

Squalo hadn't had the chance to return to the base to make some sort of prosthetic hand like they had done for Croquant's legs so he was stuck with only one functioning hand.

Whilst he didn't regret amputating his left hand, it really got annoying sometimes.

This also proved to be an legitimate issue since he was left-handed and he needed to do some fucking paperwork since his shitty boss was too lazy to do it himself.

Shuan was casually lying on one of the couches in Squalo's office while Fed sat nearby reading a book. Federico noticed from the corner of his eye that Squalo was struggling and felt slightly bad for him.

Federico placed his book down and walked towards Squalo's desk. Fed, as the Vongola heir, wasn't a stranger to paperwork so he was fully willing to help. He knew how annoying paperwork could be.

"Hey, Squalo," he called to get his attention.

Squalo craned his head around to face him as he got closer, his right arm rested on the backrest of his office chair. "What?" he grunted out.

Fed gifted him with a sympathetic smile, "Need a hand?"

...

The room went silent as the words processed through his mind.

Horror filled his features, "Oh no..." he whispered.

Squalo just chortled before bursting into hysterical laughter, "What the fuck, man?! AHAHAHAHAHA."

* * *

**...How was the pacing for this chapter? I know a heck of a lot of time passed in one chapter compared to the tons of chapters that I spent in 1 year. If the pacing felt really screwed up, please do tell me! I'll likely try and re-write it to spread it out.**

**Much longer chapter than the previous ones, though! I hope you enjoy it.**

**If any of you are also 'How to Raise a Hitman' readers, I'll have to apologise for not updating that one. I found it really difficult to write for two stories at once without blanking out my brain for at least one of them. So, I will likely try and finish this one before I go back to that unless I come up with some 'genius idea' or something.**

**Review Responses:**

_**To Lil Hamari:**_** Thanks a bunch for your review and I'm glad that you like it. I do feel a little bad since you jumped on the train when everything was about to go way down south. (I promise we'll get some more fluff later on though, with Reborn too!)**


	18. Mama

**So many reviews in one chapter! It made me so happy~ Thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your day to do that.**

**As usual, I'll reply to those reviews all at the end of the chapter so I don't block you all off from reading onto this one!**

**Another little note though, despite the fact that in one of my reviews I said that the future arc would likely remain the same as canon, I had this interesting idea to implement when we get there so I'm going to have to half-assedly (?) withdraw that one.**

* * *

**Age stamps:**

**Yuni: 1**

**Lambo: 2**

**Hayato, Tsuna: 11**

**Kyoya: 13**

**Luculia, Bianchi: 15**

**Squalo, Shuan, Federico, Dino: 19**

* * *

"You… have a boyfriend," Lu repeated in disbelief.

Her best friend beamed at her, the mattress dipping under her when she launched herself at Lu, "Yes!" she squealed, "and I love him so much~"

Lu sweatdropped. She was into this love stuff way too much, but she supposed that 15-years old wasn't all that bad of an age to have her first boyfriend at.

She sighed in defeat. "What's his name and exactly how old is he…?"

"His name is Romeo, isn't it romantic!" she swooned, "I can be the Juliet of his story~"

"…I do hope his age doesn't apply to the Shakespeare play's age gap too. That would be kinda creepy–" Bianchi averted her eyes sheepishly.

"You didn't…" Lu narrowed eyes, "Bianchi…" she warned cautiously.

Bianchi laughed nervously.

"He might, um, be…" she paused hesitantly before whispering the rest, "…20."

The sky dramatically flopped her back onto the bed. "Bia!" she whined.

Bianchi pouted, "Age means nothing to love, though!" she preached, "You of all people should understand!"

The flat look that Lu sent her spoke wonders of how convinced she was.

"Age is just a number?" She tried pathetically.

Lu's expression didn't waver in the slightest.

A loud crash exploded through the room as a familiar blond flew through the door at into the opposite wall. He landed in an awkward upside-down position.

Lu's flat and unimpressed look had transferred over to Shuan as Bianchi stared at him in bewilderment.

"Uh… prison is just a room?"

His 50 cents input got him a barely missed sakura mochi to the face.

* * *

On the other side of the wall, that wall being the one that separated Lu's bedroom from the hallway, was 2 teenage boys. More specifically the ones within their friend group that were allowed within the house in the first place.

Squalo sat with his back against the wall and his head in his arms, as Shuan crouched by the slightly ajar door.

The greeting that Lu's flames presented to them when they first got there told them clearly that she knew they were there but thankfully didn't snitch on them.

Squalo didn't even know why he was there.

Actually, he did. He was in the house to get his prosthetics shit done and to work on his sword upgrades and shit, but why he was sitting outside of Lu's room eavesdropping on the girls' conversation was what boggled him.

He stayed silent for the sake of his nosy as fuck blond friend, he wasn't about to blow his cover.

They discovered that day that Lu was a magnificent actor, she didn't even blink when either of them slipped up with their flames and Bianchi hadn't the slightest clue at all that they were there.

Shuan, being the mist he was, was a very good hider. Bianchi wouldn't have been able to see him so just waiting there and eavesdropping would have allowed him to succeed. That, of course, only would occur given Squalo had the patience to sit there for the time being.

Shuan passed by the mechanics lab on the way to Lu's room and Squalo was curious as to what he was doing, and so this led to him being dragged along too. Needless to say, he regretted ever asking.

"Voi! Where are you taking me?!" he yelled in protest, his arm being dragged by Shuan's rough grip.

Shuan didn't even look at him in favour of staring straight ahead. "We're going to eavesdrop on the girls."

"Why the fuck would we do that?"

"Bianchi has a boyfriend." Shuan helpfully informed him.

Squalo squinted, "And why do we care?"

The cloud-mist was silent.

Squalo read the air and nodded solemnly with a sympathetic sigh, "I see."

That is essentially how they ended up in that position but now Squalo was getting irritated because they had been sitting outside a teen girl's bedroom for about 45 minutes.

Squalo huffed, "Dude just go in and tell her to break up with the guy or something."

Shuan glared at him.

"You clearly haven't met her, she'd neck anyone that would screw with her obsession with love."

Squalo rolled his eyes. "Then tell Lu, she'd probably be a decent wing woman."

Shuan released a hesitant sigh and Squalo sent him a knowing look.

"You aren't going to do it are you?"

A guilty expression bloomed on his face as his lips pressed together, "Probably not."

"Age is just a number?" Bianchi said from within the room.

Shuan frowned, "Yeah, right and prison is just a room…" he frustratedly mumbled under his breath.

Squalo pushed himself to his feet. This kid wasn't getting out of this one, Squalo was like the number one wingman, after all.

He scoffed, "Well too fucking bad." He said as he reeled a leg back, Shuan snapped his neck towards his friend and burst into nervous laughter.

"Waitwaitwaitwait, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, righ–"

A gleeful, toothy grin was the last thing Shuan saw before his face met with the rock-solid interior walls of Lu's bedroom.

* * *

The loud crash attracted a lot of attention to their location and soon the curious and concerned residents of the house came around to check it out. It was mostly Fon that came to check out what was going on since both Watari and Verde had bugged the whole place with surveillance cameras anyway.

Verde had actually created a convenient arcobaleno transport network within the building given the correct permissions. It was simply shortcuts that were created to house child-sized people up to likely the age of 7. The project was long and strenuous but, in the end, it was well worth it.

Fon arrived shortly after the Shuan-Squalo produced crash proving his well-earned title of being the fastest arcobaleno.

A small square of the wall pushed open and Fon gracefully leapt out.

Lu perked up when she saw him, "Hi, Fon! What can I do for you?"

He smiled back serenely.

"I initially arrived to see what the commotion was, but I also received a peculiar phone call that requires your attention."

She nodded in understanding, it must have been important and perhaps very personal for the calls to make it all the way to her. Usually, they'd be sorted as soon as they hit Watari.

"Who is it?"

His smile turned impassive, Lu took the hint and stood from the comfort of her own mattress.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll be back."

Squalo roughly tousled her hair as he entered and she exited the room, both in greeting and farewell.

"Laters."

She smiled kindly to him in response as Fon made himself comfortable on her shoulder. Her smile dropped into bitter sadness as they escaped their line of sight.

She would be lying if the crack in her star didn't sting a little.

Lu picked up the on-hold call as soon as she entered Fon's room. A smooth beep indicated a successful connection.

"Lu…lu?" Her body went rigid when she heard the familiar voice, so… so ill-sounding, so sick.

"…Aria-nee?" she whispered in horror. "What happened to you…? You sound terrible."

A weak laugh rang through the line, "I don't have long… I wish to meet with you, if that…" she took a moment to take in a deep breath, "if that's alright…"

"O-of course it's okay. I'll –I'll be there as soon as I can, okay?"

"Thank you, that's more than I could ever want."

Watari got in contact with Stefano (Curly 2) once more as soon as Lu had requested the trip. Stefano Bovino had stated several times over that he was very willing to be an emergency pilot. Since the trip was an emergency last minute one, Watari failed to clear up time in his schedule to attend, however, he wasn't about to send Lu off on her own into mafia territory, even under the protection of the Arcobaleno sky.

Fon volunteered himself to go as he had acted as the middle-man for the initial contact and he was very concerned about the woman as well.

He requested that should Watari and/or Verde fine the time to do so, that they contact the other Arcobaleno about the situation.

The current Arcobaleno sky was dying, and while Watari knew of the signs, it was within his obligations as a friend and as a fellow element to heed to this request.

His little girl was slipping through his fingers by the years and it was no longer up to him to path out her future.

She was growing into a wonderful young girl and it was time that she started pathing out her own future.

* * *

Lu was stressed, and it was visible all over her face. Not even Stefano commented anything but a brief greeting and an explanation of safety procedures.

They arrived at the Giglio Nero mansion within the hour.

The guards were tense when their aircraft arrived, but they restrained themselves under the orders of their boss. They took no actions against their arrival nor did anyone protest when the 15-year old strode directly through their front gates and into their home base.

No-one took the initiative to lead them to where Aria was, nor did they need to. Fon acted as her eyes as her vision shifted, they moved quickly and efficiently towards Aria's weakly flickering flame core. A beautiful orange star that was a flame that was desperately gathering oxygen to survive the smallest bit longer.

They didn't have much time at all.

Aria laid pale and sickly within the comfort of her own bed, no-one else but a small child, a baby that didn't look any older than 1, sat by her mother's death bed.

The orange pacifier glowed dimly from her bedside table as they entered the room.

"Aria-nee…" Lu greeted quietly so she wouldn't startle the frail woman.

Aria's eyes opened tiredly and half-lidded, her lips spreading into a weak yet peaceful smile.

"Lulu," she greeted the girl, Fon took a step back from the conversation and moved to entertain and interact with the little child. He knew when to remain quiet.

Aria's speech was weak, every few words she would need to take pauses and just breathe. Lu felt ashamed when she wished that the woman could let go and be at peace instead of in this struggle for life.

It wasn't her right to suggest anything of the sort anyway.

"Lulu," Aria breathed out again. Lu's eyes met hers, her heart erupted with sadness when she saw how much acceptance filled the woman's eyes. It just didn't feel fair.

Over the years, she hadn't seen Aria constantly, she barely talked to the woman outside of phone calls and video calls but she still felt a connection to her. She was her older sister in spirit and soul.

"I was… I was foolish, little sister." Lu remained silent as the woman regained herself before continuing. She took a heavy weighted breath, "I failed to… perform my… duties… as my mother's child…"

Aria went dead silent. Lu panicked and checked her star, it was getting dangerously close to distinguishing, Aria needed to cut straight to the point, and quickly.

…Lu, of course, would never verbalise such. She knew that Aria knew it as well.

"Please… please take my child… and become her sky… her mama…"

Lu's eyes went wide, "Your…" her gaze turned to the little baby that Fon was playing with, "Your child…?"

Aria's eyes fell closed, a soft smile gracing her features and a single tear drop running down the side of her face.

Her soul flame vanished into thin air.

Lu stood still in shock and she reached over to confirm it. The piece of hope that lingered in her heart vanished as her own skin met with the contrasting sheet of ice that surrounded Aria's form.

A sob bubbled up her throat when the realisation hit her like a train. She was gone, Aria-nee was gone.

The vicious woman that saved Shuan's life with a casual smile…

_"I'll say that we're now friends and want to hang out together and I'll see if we can borrow one of the flight attendant's chairs temporarily for you. You can stay with us, I'll make Gamma and our little sky here, swap~"_

The comforting warmth that cared so much and hugged Lu when she almost died…

_"Are you okay, Lulu?! I was so worried!"_

The one that accepted her, a stranger, as family…

_"Call me 'nee-chan', okay? We're in Japan after all!"_

And the happy soul that called her household for every single one of her birthdays.

_"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY SISTER~!" Aria cooed through the video call. The sheer force of her volume shook the walls of her room._

_Lu beamed at her through the camera when Squalo, Shuan and Bianchi burst into her room to check on her._

_"VOII, the fuck was that?!" Squalo yelled._

_Aria visibly perked up, "Your friends?!" she said excitedly, "Introduce me, you never tell me about your school life!"_

_Lu gestured them over and Squalo and Bianchi gathered around her chair, into the camera's view. Shuan followed shortly after the pair._

_"Aww!" Aria cooed, "They're so cute, just like you!"_

_Squalo was flabbergasted and borderline offended but there was a visible dust of pink on his cheeks, "VOI, I'M NOT CUTE." he protested_

_Aria laughed softly and winked. "But of course, you manly man."_

_His face flushed red and he huffed and turned away._

_Shuan poked his head into viewing range._

_"Oh hi, Aria," He greeted the woman casually._

_"Ah, Shuan! Nice to see you again, how are you doing?" _

_Shuan released an exaggerated sigh, "I've got more idiots to deal with nowadays…" he complained dramatically._

_Aria huffed a laugh before her lips slid into a smirk._

_"You're one of them, correct?"_

_Shuan rolled his eyes in good nature. "Of course, I am. I'm the best idiot out there."_

_Bianchi hovered around the conversation with a slight awkwardness. She couldn't find a place to join in the conversation, so she was just… lingering around. _

_That was before Lu tugged her into the centre of the camera._

_"Aria-nee! This is Bianchi, I call her Bia and she's my bestest friend!"_

_Aria nodded kindly, "It's nice to meet you, Bianchi. Thank you for taking care of my little sister,"_

_Bianchi blushed at the sudden attention and stiffly nodded in reply._

_"I –it's nice to meet you too, Signorina Aria…"_

_Shuan kicked Squalo back into the camera's viewing range and dragged him up to the screen. He tossed an arm around the silver head's shoulder, "This is Squalo, Aria. He's our resident asshole extraordinaire and now apparently our resident asshole 'manly man' extraordinaire." Shuan even added in the air quote gestures for the full effect._

_Squalo averted his eyes and grumbled profanities under his breath. Aria snorted but nodded politely anyway. _

_"Nice to meet you too, Squ-chan~" she teased, unknowingly creating the nickname that would continue to haunt him forever._

_Lu grinned at him, "Yeah, Squ-chan!"_

_"VOI, DON'T CALL ME SQU-CHAN!"_

The happy memories haunted her as much as she knew that they shouldn't.

Lu's heart sank and as she suppressed her tears and sobs.

She gently moved the blanket over the rest of Aria's body, her hands closing to together in prayer as the fabric fluttered down over the woman's face.

Fon lowered his head in mournful respect.

The child tilted her head slightly and watched them curiously with wide doe eyes.

She didn't protest when the stranger scooped her up in one arm, with the orange pacifier in the other that linked the stranger to the fate that she was originally destined to take.

A small giggle erupted from her when they approached the waiting aircraft. The noise successfully attracted the arcobaleno's attention.

Lu smiled sadly at her, "What's your name, little one?" she asked gently.

The girl smiled cluelessly and reached her arms up to Lu, the small stitching on the corner of the pocket of her overalls revealed the answer to her enquiry.

"Yuni, hmm? A beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

Yuni squealed in delight, "Mama!" she cooed, her arms reaching for the sky.

Lu felt her body flood with guilt, she didn't want to replace Aria's place in Yuni's life. It just wasn't right–

"That's right, Yuni," Fon replied, gently. "That's your mama, she'll be your sky like you'll be hers. Your mama will always watch you from the stars."

_"Be her sky… her mama…"_

Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes.

"That's right, Yuni," she sobbed, her voice cracking. "I'll be the best mama I can be…"

For Aria, she would do this.

For Yuni and for Aria, it was the least she could possibly do.

* * *

It was late at night by the time they returned. Stefano chose to take a more calming route on the way back such to up their moods even the slightest bit.

Yuni adored the sights they saw, the massive skyscrapers, flying through the clouds to the little rainbow that appeared when the sun shone on it _just _right. It felt ironic to Fon that such a thing occurred on their way home, it felt like a painful reminder, yet he chose to push those thoughts away.

He glanced at the young teen that sat across from him, the young child shining in excitement as she babbled incoherently at all the little pieces of nature. Lu was mourning but leaned towards showing a blank lack of emotion rather than bursting emotion.

For a girl that had just reached her mid-teens, she was terrifyingly mature when it really came down to it.

A voice rang through the intercom systems shortly after, Stefano made sure to make soft noises before starting to speak such to not startle his newly acquired passenger.

"We'll be arriving at Capo shortly." He informed them from the pilot's room.

Yuni perked up at the new sound and her eyes darted all around the general vicinity to try and find the source. A pouted found its way onto her face when she didn't succeed.

Lu smiled softly at her and stroked her short tuff of hair back, Yuni happily leaned into her gentle touch.

"Mn," Lu noised in appreciation, "Thank you, Stefano."

Stefano's frown bled into his voice, "You know, you're really good with that kid." He said.

Lu huffed a half-hearted laugh. "I hope so."

He chuckled, "I know so, kid." He paused for a notable second, "You know, myself and my wife had a kid a couple of years ago. I never really got around to telling you guys and I really think it'd be nice if perhaps the little kids could play together?"

Lu froze and her lips fell slightly agape. She did _not_ expect him to suggest such a thing let alone have a kid _or a wife._

"Y-you have a wife?!" Lu blurted out before quickly cutting herself off by slapping her hands over her mouth. Yuni blinked at her in confusion when her pseudo head massage suddenly ended.

Her mouth formed an 'o' when she 'processed' what was going on and momentarily proceeded to cover her own mouth with her hands as well, mimicking the older sky in an adorable fashion.

Lu burst into giggles and gathered the little girl into her arms, "You're so cute!" she cooed.

"…Oi," Stefano complained, "You can't just insinuate that you're surprised that I have a wife then call me cute, what the?"

Lu released Yuni into her lap and puffed her cheeks in annoyance. The corner of Lu's mouth twitched up into a smile when Yuni cluelessly copied her once more with a little head tilt and a confused look.

She held in another coo and the tone of her voice had audibly brightened up, "I wasn't talking to you, Curly 2." She huffed matter-of-factly, "I was talking to Yuni."

"…Oh, okay." He faux sniffled.

Lu rolled her eyes and smiled fondly, "I think It'd be fun to meet your kid, though." she added on last minute. She felt a little bad even though she knew it was just Stefano being dramatic.

"He's a true angel, don't worry you won't regret it at all."

Lu grew sceptical at his claim–worryingly sceptical. If his kid is anything like him, but with a child's temper, I don't think that angel would be the correct word to describe the kid as.

An angel is like… Yuni.

Lu poked Yuni's cheeks with a bright grin and Yuni, being the _true _angel she was, grinned toothlessly right back at her and relished in the loving attention she was receiving.

* * *

Her mood had significantly plummeted by the time they returned home but she couldn't find any reason to feel upset about it. She had Stefano and Yuni as pick-me-ups but the rest of them weren't so fortunate.

All the arcobaleno had gathered solemnly around their fireplace and several cups of tea had been served and sat untouched on the mahogany coffee table positioned in the centre of them. All their eyes slowly dragged their way up to look at her when she arrived.

Yuni cringed away from the penetrating gazes and dug her face into Lu's neck. Lu's lips pursed into a strained frown.

Their eyes locked especially onto the orange glow that radiated from the pacifier that she had hooked onto the side of her belt.

The silence was hurting her more than they could ever imagine.

Watari cleared his throat to cut the thick tension with ease but their eyes didn't leave her form.

Yuni was beginning to tear up under the pressure of their stares and Lu could feel her tears fall into her neck.

"I'm… going to go…" she whispered. Yuni was suffering from her lack of action and she wasn't about to let it go on any longer. She promised that she would be a good mom and she damn right was going to at least try.

Skull looked like he wanted to protest but Reborn cut his lackey off with a simple click of his gun.

Lu left for her room to get some much-needed rest.

Emotional exhaustion hurt equally as much as physical and she had found that out to the hard way.

* * *

"Who is she?" Skull asked, breaking the silence after Lu had left with Yuni in her arms. Fon had moved quickly to join the rest of them.

"Luculia," Reborn informed the lackey, "Have you not met her yet, lackey?"

The cloud sulked, "No… why? Has everyone els–" he sulked even harder, "No way, everyone _but _me has met her?"

Fon smiled sympathetically. "It's quite alright, she's very accepting. I'm sure you'll get along with her just fine."

"Who's the baby though, kora?" Collonello questioned curiously.

Fon's lips turned down the slightest bit, to name Aria as the child's mother may cause chaos however, he found no detrimental reason to lie.

"Aria's daughter," he informed them.

Reborn's eyes shadowed over, "Does that mean that Aria is gone?"

Fon took a pause to mourn in the flush of memories.

He sighed, "Yes and she entrusted Lu with little Yuni." He smiled gently in the direction that she had left to, "I believe she will do well to raise her. They've bonded together quite the bit already."

Verde hummed, "Perhaps the fact that Shuan–" Skull opened his mouth to interrupt but shut it promptly under the scientist's stern stare.

"–the girl's cloud," he clarified, sending the guilty looking Skull a pointed look, "is still connected closely with the brat is the reason why the lackey never had a chance encounter with her."

Lal looked sceptical, "Then why did Reborn have a chance encounter if she already had Watari?"

"It's just a theory," he drawled.

Lal huffed unamused.

"Where is the cloud-mist kid anyway?" she questioned.

Verde shrugged, "I believe one of their, being Luculia and Shuan's, friends had an emergency that required their support."

All their eyes shot to their resident expert informant expectantly. Viper frowned, "Muu… I don't give information out for free."

The sudden burst of money being chucked at his face startled him for a split second but he quickly recaught himself and gathered it all to himself.

"It's likely because of the Vongola affair," he explained, flicking through the notes and counting, "The two eldest children are dead and the only one left is one of their tight group of friends. What's more, is that the kid doesn't have a single guardian."

Collonello sucked air through his teeth, "Ah, shit. That's rough, kora."

"Not only that," Reborn continued off the mist, "I received a contract request to move from training idiot-Dino to Iemitsu's neglected, _civilian _son that he hasn't seen in nearly 7 years."

Lal leaned her chin on her palm, "I heard about that one. I never could get deeper information about it though; the kid's file is terribly outdated. Is Nono giving up on his last kid? I thought Federico was the favoured son anyway."

"I don't believe Nono has given up on his son's talents to be a leader, but rather doesn't wants his last blood-linked son to be put in the spotlight anymore. Nono is getting old and now I think he just wants him to live the life that his eldest children failed to do so, he wants to be able to see at least one of his children survive this cruel world. Buring two of his three children is likely killing him inside as it is."

* * *

**I wrote this while I was sulking about feeling bad about resigning from my part-time job ;-; I still feel like I've created such a disturbance in the rift q-q**

**I read through this exactly once to proof read! So if there are any major grammar or flow errors please do inform me if possible. I hope this chapter was okay!**

***clears throat* Anyway!**

**Okay~! Let the review replies begin!**

**\- _Guest__ -_**

Thank you so much for your review and, uh, sorry not sorry haha! I'm glad you could feel the emotion from the chapter but I'm sure you're a completely nice person, though! I 100% believe ^^

**\- _Vivi Neferatari__ -_**

Oh! I remember you from my really early chapters! It makes me so happy to see you're still reading on ^^ Thanks for taking the time to review again!

Who will remain with Lu? In terms of bond loyalty, Watari would be a first and the arcobaleno would be a second + some more but all will be revealed soon.

As for your second question regarding Shuan and Xanxus... *cough* spoilers~

**\- _Lil Hamari__ -_**

Thank you so much again for your review!

Lu actually lost 3 bonds (poor baby) but the mentioning was so brief it might have been skipped over - that's probably my fault, though, haha ;-; (Hayato, Kyoya and Squalo)  
It makes me so happy to see that you're enjoying it and once again, thank you!

_**\- Frozen teen -**_

Wo-ah! So many theories and I'm absolutely digging it xD

I love seeing all your suggestions/theories and I honestly do pick up on a few of them that I find really interesting. Sometimes you chuck me out of brain farts and I really appreciate it.

Thanks for all your reviews and suggestions~

_**\- Konoha loves negima -**_

I knoww! Poor baby ;-; but at least little Tsuna now has a few lifelines to carry on when his parents don't help him. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks a bunch for your review! ^^

_**\- Nuvola De Demone -**_

I'm glad that you love her and I sincerely apologise for my continuous bullying of little Lu ;-; _but unfortunately, it can only continue. _But don't worry! I promise that we won't go so deep into the void, we'll see rays of sunshine too!

Thanks so much for taking the time to review!

_**\- ACasualPotato -**_

You, my friend, made me snort in class. "My affordable baby" hahahaha!

Thank you so much for your review and I aspire to continue to update in between classes no matter how long it takes! o7 As a fellow fanfiction reader myself, I know how sad it gets when a writer drops off a story, but at the same time as a writer, I know the feeling of writer's block or inescapable plotholes.

Either way, I'll try my very best!


	19. Resolve

**Sorry for the wait, I've had a kind of stressful week that's likely only going to get worse as the semester closes up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy developing it!**

* * *

Everything was going **wrong**.

Enrico was meant to prove their father wrong, he was meant to succeed, meant to _live_. One of them was meant to take the throne, be a good leader and have the successful life of a mafia boss that Fed never wanted.

Alas, that wasn't how life worked, life never went like you would want it to.

Federico Ferrino di Vongola stood in the pouring rain wearing nothing but black and now, as an only child. He blended perfectly into the large sea of black that surrounded him and that was his intention.

His brothers were dead, and he was next. 'Accidents' were beginning to occur, and it was only a matter of time before life crept upon him too.

His father pressured him heavily to find guardians, he insisted that Federico needed the as soon as possible, they would help protect him.

However, his father knew that was a lie. His brothers both had full sets of guardians, but they were both murdered in cold blood.

Enrico, the eldest, his stupid brother that matured greatly once he graduated from school. He was assassinated by gun-shot as his guardians watched helplessly as their sky's body fell lifelessly to the ground. He didn't know if he should feel bitter about their failure.

Massimo, his idiot gamer of a brother. He was a technology genius that was with his storm when he was drowned and murdered. His storm, his best friend was murdered alongside him.

Federico felt no comfort in finding guardians for himself. But rather in his friends that unfortunately had mostly dispersed over the years.

Fed knew that it wasn't in his right to ask Dino for protection given the amount of stress he already had upon himself, he knew that he couldn't have asked Squalo, despite Squalo joining a Vongola assassination squad himself, he clearly had his own stuff to get through by supporting Fed's little brother. That loyalty to his sibling was something that Federico really appreciated.

He was left with Bianchi, Shuan and… Lia.

He couldn't ask her. He would hate himself if he put her in more danger than she was already under and he wouldn't be the only one that would hate him too.

The familiar voice of his father sliced cleanly through his thought process.

"Federico, how is your search for guardians going?"

Fed stood in front of his father's office desk the next morning. He averted his eyes to the side, "It's not been going, father."

Nono frowned.

"You know how I feel about this, Fed. It's for your own safety, you need to find yourself guardians—"

Federico released a sigh, "I've told you this before. I can't force harmonization on someone I don't trust, it doesn't work like that. Guardians don't just easily appear. If they come, they come."

"We can't wait any longer, Fed. It's only a matter of time before an attack happens on you when I can't protect you."

He gritted his teeth, "I know."

"I know you have friends. Why have none of them harmonized with you?"

Something lodged itself in Fed's throat, "My friends are either skies or have skies themselves."

"Why don't you–"

"I'm not going to steal guardians from my friends nor my brother!" He hissed.

Nono lowered his eyes and sighed, "You're getting bold, Fed."

"Only when you're suggesting I destroy other people's souls for my own safety. I won't do it."

Nono waved a hand lightly to dismiss him, the features of his face sagged heavily under the emotional pressure. "Go on now, I just needed to check up on you. Whatever you do just please stay safe..."

He nodded sharply and promptly left the room.

Fed whipped out his phone the second he took a step outside of the mansion.

"Bianchi, can you meet me at La Pineta?"

The teen on the other end of the line made a noise of question, "I don't know why you sound so panicked but sure. Don't forget to get rid of your tail, though."

He pulled open the door of a car, slid into the driver's seat and dismissed the chauffeur.

"Yeah, no worries. I'm hanging up now."

Fed hung up and chucked his phone on the passenger seat before rolling down the window. "I'll drive myself this time, sorry."

The chauffeur nodded politely, "Of course, sir. Have a pleasant day."

He nodded and closed the window before firing up the ignition.

It was when he hit the first light when he got another call and he answered it through the car's Bluetooth system.

"Fed, what's going on? Lu's out of town and is due back any minute now." It was Shuan, Bianchi must have told him.

He released an aggravated sigh since the light just _had_ to cut him off when he got to the front.

"I'm not talking about this over the phone, Shuan. We'll talk after. Now, what is this about Lia being out of town?"

He channelled sky flames into that singular white bead of the bracelet that adorned his wrist. A gradual flood of mist flames expelled itself from the bead and covered his tracks.

"She had an urgent call to see a close friend. She said she'd be back before tonight."

Fed frowned, "She's by herself?"

"She isn't weak, Fed. She could kill anyone before they could even think of pulling out a gun."

The light turned green and he continued forward.

"That doesn't mean she would, though." He countered.

A defeated sigh escaped the cloud, "No, no it doesn't. She's with Fon, though, she's not alone."

"…Fon, right, okay."

He turned a corner, the buildings suddenly melted into the familiar narrow and old streets of Capo. A comforting image to them all.

"Can this conversation wait for her?"

Fed sucked in a sharp breath, "Tomorrow," He resigned with a strained voice, "I need a room in Pineta to stay for the night, though."

Shuan hummed curiously.

"I'll get you a room, we'll meet early tomorrow."

The line momentarily went flat.

Fed breathed out a stressed sigh, he needed to survive the night.

It was irritating and painful to think that he couldn't even sleep in a privately-owned location _with a security detail_ in peace. He definitely took his younger days for granted. He would much rather be under academic and social pressure than life-threatening.

Fed pulled up to La Pineta and the gates opened upon hearing his voice.

Mariana stood at the front doors of the reception, waving him over with an aged smile. He parked in one of the reserved spots and stepped out.

"Mariana," He greeted her with a curt nod and a subtly awkward smile. "Thank you for accommodating me in such little notice."

She barked out a hearty laugh, "No worries, my boy. La Pineta always has space for you lot."

Fed gestured for the older woman to lead the way once he reached her. Ladies first– that and he didn't exactly know what she had prepared for him but that was just a side note.

Mariana's head bobbed along happily as she strolled down the halls with a slight skip in her step.

"Ah, here we go. This one's for you~"

Federico stared at the doors in bewilderment. More accurately, he stared at the metal door that was _fully bolted with locks _in disbelief. It was something literally straight out of Gringotts.

She held out a hand with her palm laid out flat, "Pass me your hand, boy. I need to link this bad boy to your flames so only you can unlock it."

He absentmindedly dropped his hand into hers.

His eyes ran up and down each and every lock as she worked her magic, there were no keyholes and no pin pads. He seriously wondered if they were all flame based.

A smirk slid onto the old woman's as she watched his ever-amusing expressions.

"These locks belong to Shuan," she informed him. His eyes moved from the door to giving her his full attention. "He said something about paranoid idiots before shoving all this stuff in my arms."

All the appreciation that had flooded his veins spurted out the other end, Shuan was just an asshole like usual.

An exasperated sigh escaped him, "Typical."

She chuckled and dropped his hand back to his side.

"Indeed, very much so."

* * *

It was deep into the night when Shuan scoured the pitch-black streets of San Vito di Capo.

Shuan was irritated but he didn't feel an ounce of regret. He had thrown a hefty sum of money into Viper for severely in-depth information about Fed's situation and by hefty, he meant a significant percentage of his bank. Convincing Viper to speak out about the inner workings of the Vongola was harder than he thought but thankfully he had gotten results.

Shuan wasn't one to even consider going into something without a plan if possible and this was his way of attempting to prepare himself both mentally and physically as much as he could.

Viper explained to him that the Vongola were going through a crisis of assassinations and in particular, he mentioned the names of Enrico and Massimo di Vongola that had both been assassinated within the same few months.

Many people believed it was only time before Federico fell to the enemy as well.

The Vongola were in a tight position and were expected to begin to fall from this ordeal, Nono was suffering heavy emotional baggage and was very keen on finding the enemy to lay the blame on.

Viper spoke of his worries towards his mind stretching to point fingers at Watari, it honestly wouldn't be a stretch at all from how their relationship had been progressing from years on end. He swore that the Varia would not be directly involved in the conflict of the main famiglia as they were an independent assassination squad.

CEDEF was also mentioned to be involved and would be an issue that he would need to watch over.

Shuan rounded the corner and set off to the church, the permanently lit lamps that surrounded the aged building shone brightly in contrast to the night sky.

He recalled Bianchi's insistence of coming along with him to find out more information and he sorely wished he took up her offer. He was sure that it would have been significantly more comfortable with her presence there alongside him.

However, ignorance was bliss.

Shuan wasn't going to lie to himself about it, he was paranoid and dangerously so. The fewer people that knew that they, allies of Watari, were well informed of the Vongola conflict, the better.

If even a single person let it slip, they would be dead by the next morning.

Thus, he sent her home with her lips pressed together and a reluctant scowl on her face.

He hadn't even reached the doors when they pulled open and their local pastor took a step out of the building. Father Nicolas was Watari's dear friend and he trusted him, Shuan's paranoia for the safety of his friends did not.

Father Nicolas had a worried look spread across his features, "You look stressed." He noted.

Shuan's lips pursed as he took long strides to approach the other man.

"I can't say I'm not."

Father Nicolas gifted him with a sympathetic smile and gently ushered him into the building.

"Come and speak with me, release your tension as it will only cloud your thoughts of the future."

He led Shuan to the front bench and gestured for the boy to take a seat, Shuan did so with a sharp breath. The pastor stood by, silently and patiently.

"What do you think of the Vongola conflict, Father Nicolas?"

A glint of curiosity passed through his eyes, but he refrained. "I believe it's unfortunate for the victims involved. Those boys had done nothing but been born of unfavourable blood and as such it appears to have cost them their lives."

His gaze locked onto the floor beneath him and never wavered as he spoke. He didn't consider facing Father Nicolas in the slightest. He felt ashamed and intrusive, but he needed to hear something to jumpstart his mind process, he knew that Father Nicolas would never have denied him that and he was taking full advantage of it.

"Would you die to save a friend?" He whispered.

He was a terrible human being to have asked a person involved in the Mafia of such, it was a sensitive topic in the underworld.

The pastor simply nodded with a soft and understanding smile, "For anyone that I held care for… I would die in an instant."

Shuan released a shaky breath, a resolved and trembling sigh of acceptance.

* * *

The morning following, Yuni was the first to wake. The young child spent the night curled up in Lu's side and had woken up with a messy mane of hair and a clumsy roll to the side.

The sudden movement and jolted Lu awake in a panic, but she soon relaxed after a few heavy pants of air.

She rolled to her side with a sigh and ruffled the spikey mess on top of Yuni's head.

"Good morning, princess," she greeted huskily, her voice still laced with sleep.

A yawn took precedence over her as Yuni maneuverer herself onto her bum.

Lu's heart sank at the familiar features that were vibrant over the child's face. She missed Aria, she really did.

She squealed a joyful morning greeting with a bright grin. Her smile alone lit up the room and Lu couldn't help but smile right back at the girl.

Yuni was Yuni, she could only go forward now after all. No use lingering in the past.

Lu let out a giggle when a rumble erupted from her stomach, "I suppose it's time for breakfast? Want to go to the market to grab some yummy fruit? It's the perfect season for a bunch of my favourites."

Yuni fist pumped with her own little giggle, a sound of what seemed like approval escaped her energetic form.

Lu pressed a finger to her lips, "They might not let us go so we have to 'shh', okay?"

Yuni pressed her own finger to mirror Lu.

"Shh!"

The pair, dressed classily in their pyjamas, made their way to the open kitchen with light steps. They were greeted by the pleasant smell of an expensive brew of espresso.

"Good morning," Reborn greeted the pair politely from his position on one of the chairs by the kitchen counter.

It was 7 am in the morning, she supposed it wasn't all that early but still…

Lu presented him with a light smile, "Good morning," she replied. The strain that she felt was expertly hidden from plain sight. Reborn, however, was not one to be fooled by simply things he could not see.

"Wherever you're planning on going, I very much intend on going as well."

Her smiled morphed into sheepish and nervous hinted laughter, "I should never have thought for a second that I could fool you, Reborn."

A smirk bloomed from him. "But of course," his lips pressed against the rim of his mug, "I am the best after all."

Yuni cheered some delighted, incoherent gibberish.

"See, even the kid thinks so."

Lu snorted and eyed the seemingly cheeky grin that Yuni sprouted innocently, "Somehow, I don't doubt that at all."

Reborn's eyes scanned her form as she moved to return to her room to get dressed.

"You pacifier contains your life, Lu. Keep it on you at all times or risk dying sooner than you already will."

The subtle freeze of her muscles followed by the resonating shiver that crawled under her skin was more than enough to tell him that she had heard.

The stiff nod that followed only confirmed him of her compliance, a minor instance of relief rang through his body.

* * *

Federico awoke to the rings of his cell phone and Shuan's voice. Not exactly the thing he would prefer to hear first thing in the morning, but it would do.

"…Oi, I resent that."

Ah– he must've said that out loud. Oops.

Fed could basically hear the heavily exaggerated eye roll that Shuan was most definitely acting out.

"Lu snuck out to the market, go grab her while I go play taxi for Bianchi."

Fed was about to roll his own eyes exasperatedly before he fully processed what Shuan had just said. He rolled out of bed and immediately moved to prepare himself for outside eyes and dreaded social interaction.

"Did you just say she snuck out? Is she alone?"

Shuan scowled, "I wouldn't know, I just got back home and that was the first thing Verde told me."

"Well, shit."

He released Shuan's myriad of locks and exited the building with rapid, long strides. He was seated in 'his' car not a moment later.

"She'll be fine. She's strong, remember?"

Fed furiously rubbed out the sleep in his eyes and clapped his palms over his face a couple of times to psych himself out of it.

"Yeah, strong. I remember."

"Good." Shuan replied before unexpectedly cutting the call.

Fed shuffled in his seat for comfort, the near-silent rumbles of his engine suddenly became so much louder.

He pulled up around the corner from the market, the roads of the market were always closed and filled with people around this hour.

With a strong push to his car door, he stepped out before quickly closing it and walking off towards the market. Just before he walked out of sight of the car, he made sure he heard the confirming click when he locked the doors.

The market was crowded and honestly, he wasn't a fan. He was horribly overdressed for the area, having left the mansion in a 3-piece suit, and that being his only set of clothing that he had brought along. His only saviour in his wardrobe situation was that he wore a waistcoat instead of a blazer that day.

Fed rolled up his sleeves and scoured the crowd for the group's youngest sky.

As he walked through the crowd, he received some curious looks, but he had long been an expert in the art of ignoring unwanted eyes.

He spotted the girl in front of a fruit stand talking casually to the stall owner about his produce with a little green haired baby in her left arm. The kid was eyeing the shiny fruits curiously and absorbing in her surroundings with keen interest.

Reborn was sitting comfortably on her shoulder just watching and occasionally adding in his opinion. The sun arcobaleno eyed him cautiously when he approached the two girls.

Lu was fumbling with her wallet with her only free hand when Fed pushed himself through the crowd. He shoved a 50 euro note into the store owner's hand before dragging the girl away with an arm around her body.

Yuni was startled at the sudden movement and let out a light squeak in surprise, Reborn glowered at the Vongola heir's intrusion in a warning. What he wouldn't give to threaten the intruder with any one of his guns. This crowd, however, was serving to be an irritating nuisance.

Federico immediately retracted his arm from the girl under his stare.

She tilted her head towards him curiously, "Rico? What are you doing here?"

He spared her a small and brief smile as Yuni glare-pouted holes through his soul.

"I'm kidnapping you." He informed her shortly while opening the passenger side door for her.

"…okay?"

Reborn hopped into the car first before Lu slid herself in. She placed Yuni in her lap and allowed the sun arcobaleno to get himself comfortable beside the little girl.

Yuni was delighted to have a seat partner and a friend and took the opportunity to attempt to make a new friend. Reborn was mostly happier to be near the sky pacifier in case anything occurred.

He had been an arcobaleno for decades and took it as one of his duties to help integrate the girl into the life of an arcobaleno within the small amount of time he had left in Italy.

–within the small amount of time the sky arcobaleno had to live.

Fed closed the passenger door and slid into the driver's seat with an audible exhale.

"What's going on?" Lu asked as he started up the ignition.

He placed a hand on the back of her seat as he looked to the back of the car to reverse. "I'd rather not repeat myself more than necessary. I'll tell you when we meet up with the others."

Reborn wasn't satisfied with the answer but remained silent as the teen was driving. He wasn't keen on letting them crash and die, there were simply too many important people in the vehicle.

They pulled up at the front gate and Fed rolled down his window to speak directly to the intercom.

He pressed the button, "It's Fed." He informed the other side sharply.

The gates of the village opened barely a second later, Bianchi and Shuan both stood outside of reception as he pulled up to the curb.

Shuan moved to get Lu out of the car while Fed got himself out. Lu's groceries were left peacefully forgotten in the backseat.

Shuan eyed Yuni with interest before poking her on the nose. "You're surprisingly cuter in person." Yuni beamed back at him in greeting but it came across as if she understood his little compliment.

Lu was taken-back, "How did you even know of her...?" she narrowed her eyes at him, "You weren't even home last night."

He held his hands up in surrender.

"You underestimate how much surveillance detail we keep everywhere."

Bianchi smiled kindly at Yuni and graced Reborn with a respectful nod. Reborn returned the gesture with one of his own.

Bianchi and Reborn had taken jobs together while she was on school breaks. The experience as a hitwoman was more than encouraged and it so happened that their goals had aligned. They respected each other to a significant degree and Bianchi's extended even further with how Reborn was willing to help protect Lu while he could.

Lu was her best friend and they would do near to nothing for each other.

Fed slid through the front doors with the others close behind, "Did you manage to get a meeting room?"

Bianchi gestured to the side corridor of the reception.

"Mariana's office is down there," She suggested, "she said we could use it."

He nodded. That would have to do, it was better than nothing.

"Lead the way, then."

Shuan noticed Fed's lack of suggestion towards speaking within his sealed room. A curious thought. Whilst it wasn't perfect, it would have been significantly more protected.

However, Fed was rightfully worried about allowing entry for the sake of keeping his safe place completely free of potential bugs. As a fellow completely paranoid soul, Shuan understood his sentiment.

Reborn, Lu and Shuan were also present during this meeting and so they would be essentially free of eavesdroppers to the maximum degree no matter where they were located. It was almost impossible for one to bypass any one of them, let alone all their senses and intuition.

There were chairs scattered around the messy room, but as previously mentioned, it would have to do. They each grabbed one of the several office chairs that were lying around and dropped into them. Lu let Yuni crawl around on the soft carpet and Reborn took the initiative to watch over her so Lu could focus on the conversation.

After all, he was a brilliant multitasker and likely wouldn't miss out on anything anyway.

"So," Shuan started, his arms crossed around his chest. He sent Fed a pointed look, "Start talking."

Fed's lips pursed into a frown and he leaned forward, leaning his elbows on his thighs.

"I'm probably going to die soon." He explained bluntly.

The air in the room grew disturbingly tense at his confession. Pale faces and wide eyes became a running trend.

"Why…?" Lu whispered hoarsely.

He smiled sadly at her, "My brothers are dead, Lia. Both of them are gone and it's only a matter of time before they come for me too. It's even worse because I don't have guardians yet."

Her heart pounded in her chest in a panic. It was her worst nightmare for any of her precious people to die. "Shuan and Bia are strong! Take them as your guardians, they can protect you and you don't have to die and–"

She froze under the dark glare that he sent her and Shuan's flames rose in a warning. Fed kept his flames flaring steadily but did pull back slightly to acknowledge his friend's warning.

"You of all people know exactly what you're suggesting, Lia." He hissed. "Stop playing martyr and live your fucking life. It'll hurt more people than you realise if you kill yourself like that."

Shuan's flames recoiled back and he stared between his sky and the Vongola heir in horror.

"What are you talking about…?"

Lu flinched under his intrusive stare and both Yuni and Reborn looked up at her curiously. Yuni crawled over to her feet and tugged on her skirt for attention.

She had clearly seen the uncomfortable expression on her face and wanted to help.

A strained smile bloomed on her face as she reached down to gather her little girl in her arms.

Her lips were sealed shut but Fed wasn't about to let it go on any longer. He had always thought that they had all been informed of the effects of bond breaking but apparently not. Their little innocent sky had been keeping her mouth shut.

It angered him to no end. She had a child now and that was even more of a reason why she should restrain from being a fucking martyr.

"Bond severing isn't something you can take to lightly." He started. Lu stared at him in alarm but the look he shot back at her made her reel back.

"It disturbs me that you were not informed of it. Sky bonds, also known as elemental harmonisation, are **unbreakable **links made directly to the sky's soul to the element's."

Bianchi looked absolutely horrified at this point. "Y-you mean that…?"

Fed's jaw clenched, "Yes. A bond break involves the side that intends on shattering the bond snapping off a piece of the other end's soul. An element that breaks off a sky bond will forever hold a dying shard of their previous sky with them and the sky will be left with a hole in their soul. This effect results in violent physical relapses depending on the depth of the bond."

Shuan exploded in rage. "Then no!" He refused, "Just fucking no. No offence, Fed. I love you like a brother but I'm not doing that shit."

Bianchi's hands clenched.

"Me neither. I don't need to break bonds to help protect you anyway, since when did flame harmonisation determine who you could or couldn't fight with and protect anyway?"

"And if an element or a sky dies?" Reborn prodded further.

Fed turned eyes to the arcobaleno, "Then the bond is locked to the dead, the shard is taken from the living and dragged away."

Lu's shoulders sagged in defeat as Reborn hopped up to sit on the armrest of her chair and tilted his head towards her.

His face was blank of emotions sans the minor frown that had bloomed across his face.

"Do you want to die? Is that it?" Reborn asked.

Her hands trembled.

"No…" she whispered. "I don't want to die…"

"Then why are you sad? Why are you not happy that your friends want to stay by your side so that you can live?"

Her eyes lowered in shame, "I never wanted to be a bother. Over the years, I've locked so many people into bonds and some never had a choice. I just wanted them to live their lives and achieve their goals, I never want to lock someone down… I didn't know it would hurt people too…"

Reborn patted her arm lightly.

"Trust me. If they felt pinned down, they would tell you. This is all by choice and that applies to all of us."

* * *

_**\- Nuvola De Demone -**_

Thank you so much for your review!

Indeed it will be a long road ahead, however, at the very least I can promise that no matter how deep I throw everyone into the void they will sprout out the other end. There will be rollercoasters but the hardships for every character will fight for their ending!

_**\- kelsey-kianna -**_

Tsuna and Lulu will definitely meet! In the past, present or future, we'll have to see. I reckon Kyoya and Hayato would be devastated if they find out but Lu would never be one to tell them anything and hurt their feelings :(

Thank you for taking the time to review! ^^

_**\- Vivi Neferatari -**_

Thank you for your review! I'm so happy you liked it.

The pacifier was glowing for Aria because of the presence of Fon, and for Lu due to the presence of the arcobaleno. Lulu _is_ the sky arcobaleno since she accepted the pacifier in Yuni's place. If she hadn't accepted the pacifier at that moment in time, the pacifier would have linked to Yuni due to genetics and general closeness.

Unfortunately, Lu will unlikely be Decima, however, that doesn't mean she can't be badass over the boys and basically take over (huehue). From my perspective, I would believe that the mafia would be terribly sexist in terms of bosses. So in order for Lu to be considered, both Fed and Tsuna would need to die.


	20. Survive and Live

**Hello to all you lovely people that are still here! I'm currently stuck in a Marvel hype which has been making writing a little harder (because there are Marvel ideas digging into the back of my brain orz) but I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway.**

**My finals are starting soon, so if I don't update for maybe a month or so it is likely that school is the cause.**

**I mean... why pass when you can pass away amirite? :^)**

**[ Announcement: We have reached 100k words of complete and utter BS. Great job, guys! Thank you to all those people that have tagged along to the journey. ]**

* * *

**Timestamps**

**Yuni - 2**

**Lu, Bianchi - 16**

**Fed, Shuan - 20**

**Watari - 70**

* * *

Vongola Mansion, 1-year into Federico's protection

Federico's situation was a perfect opportunity for Shuan and Bianchi to get a first-hand view of the Vongola atmosphere. Their presence alongside the last remaining heir of the Vongola was heavily welcome considering Federico's tendency to ditch his minders.

Other than the overly peaceful atmosphere that the Vongola mansion held, the only thing that bothered Shuan was the genuinity of the staff.

Shuan had spent so long antagonising the Vongola because they were a threat to Lu, yet he was starting to doubt himself. He was greeted kindly by all staff, members of the famiglia and even Vongola Nono himself. It was mind-boggling as hell.

"I'm truly grateful for the two of you taking the time to protect my son, it means more than anything to me."

Bianchi and Shuan stood on each of Fed's sides and Bianchi took one for the team and replied, "It's our pleasure to do so. I'd do almost anything to help protect my friends."

Nono nodded, visibly pleased by her response.

Reading minds was something Shuan was capable of doing yet he never did. Shuan's psychic abilities consisted of purely mental abilities, telepathy and mind reading but he was certain that it would run him to insanity if he ever read minds, so he refrained. His paranoia had always gotten the best of him and it wasn't the first time he was conscious of the fact.

Watari had even told it to him directly once in the past.

_It was during a lengthy training session after Viper had already left with Squalo for the Varia. Shuan was concerned about his progress and with his implanted abilities and had asked off Watari to aid him._

_Shuan sat in the centre of the training room with his legs crossed as he meditated– well, attempted to meditate. His frustration in his lack of progress was flooding his mind and he was struggling to find inner peace._

_"Breathe, Shuan." He heard Watari command from an ambiguous position._

_Frustration was bubbling under his skin by that point._

_"**Shuan.**" Watari yelled, snapping him out of his own thoughts. Air filled his lungs through rapid pants when he finally returned to reality._

_He fell into a cold sweat. He was terrified and panicked, he was so stuck in his head that he **forgot to breathe.**_

_He could have suffocated himself and wouldn't have even felt a thing._

_Angry tears edged his eyes and he grit his teeth together. His hands clenched desperately at his pants to ground himself to the world._

_Watari breathed out a heavy sigh._

_"Take a break and do not attempt to continue without supervision. If I am not free to watch over you, I will find another to do so. Go to bed for the night, it's late and you're exhausted."_

_Shuan grimaced._

_"Yes, sir…" he whispered hoarsely._

_Shuan never attempted to meditate again unless under Watari's gaze in particular. He didn't want to present to anyone else his insecurities and weaknesses._

_The fact that he had near to no control over his mindscape was not something he wanted to advertise._

However, this situation called for a release of his paranoia. Shuan desperately wanted and needed to get to the truth of the Vongola for the sake of the lives of his friends and his sky. They were his family and had saved him; he would do anything to protect them.

Vongola Nono, who he had been terrified of and had always seen as the 'evil final boss' in his life just seemed like a decent, if not slightly terrible dad to Fed and it was digging into his subconscious. Something in this fucked up famiglia was literally mentally screwed up and he needed to find out what.

For the first time in 5 years, Shuan let his mind wander out.

He regretted it almost instantly.

P͘͜͠͠l͏̴̧ȩ̷͜a̛͟͟͠s͏̸̢̛̀è̵͘ ̵̛̕͜ś͏̨̕͞a̶͘̕͘͠v͏͜͢e̡ ̶͢͞͡m̡͏̸͠y̵͞҉̴ ̶̸̢́͜s̢̢̛̀͟o҉̵n̶͜͝.͞҉

Shuan recoiled violently and stumbled back a few heavy steps before falling back into the side of the couch. His arms shot out to clutch at his head, his head was pounding, he could feel the panicked blood flood at a rapid pace into his brain.

His eyes were shaking wide and worried as he staggered back to his feet. He consciously kept an eye on his breathing, he needed to calm the blood flow before he busted a vein and disabled himself.

**What the fuck was that?**

Nono looked over at him, his eyebrows furrowed, heavily concerned. "Are you alright, ỳ̴̕͝o̴͢ų̛̀͜͡n̕͜g̵͘͜͟͡ ̸̴̴͘m̶͢͟a҉̧͝͏ņ̴̵̧̕?͞" Shuan flinched.

Nono, from Shuan's perspective, started to glitch, not only audibly but visibly. Clearly not to the naked eye as he darted his attention to his friends that kneeled by his side.

Shuan could see eyes from behind the man and it horrified him to death. Shuan trembled under the lingering red eyes that had flicked in and out of existence from Nono's mind.

What had him shaking in his knees wasn't that it was an unknown entity, or that he might be facing something powerful. It was that **he had seen those eyes before**.

Shuan oh-so-desperately wished he could share the image and ask for second opinions. If he could, he was completely positive that someone would have been able to identify the man that stood in Nono's subconscious mind.

The hold he had on his pounding head didn't waver as he screwed his eyes shut tightly.

He couldn't wipe out the potential case of him hallucinating. What if it was just him and his paranoia? What if he wrongly accused an innocent person?

Yet, what if it wasn't? What if it was something wrong with Nono?

He couldn't tell, he hadn't tried to invade a mind since the initial experiments and it frustrated him to no limit. Either way, he was determined to bottle up him mind until he got away from the Vongola boss, he didn't want to risk another relapse.

Bianchi helped him gently to his feet as she laughed awkwardly and nervously, "I apologise for this, Nono." She apologised with a slight grimace, "I think we'll take him back for now."

She looked to Fed for support and he nodded along with it.

"Good day, father." He bid him with a curt nod.

The man smiled at his son, "G̛͜ǫ̨͡͏̸o̕҉̧̨̕d̨̀͠ day, Federico and friends."

Shuan winced as the static invaded past his mental barriers.

He needed to train his mind more, he was naïve to think he could have avoided it for the betterment of himself.

Bianchi helped swing Shuan onto Fed's back and they made their way down the halls of the mansion.

_'Hey, is that supposed to be the young master's new guards? They don't look too good…'_

Fuck, he didn't want to hear any of this.

Shuan tightened the defences he had built upon his mind but nothing was stopping the myriad of invading thoughts, they all shifted through all his mental barriers with no shown resistance what so ever.

He gritted his teeth in annoyance, at least the static was gone. The last thing he needed was damage to his mind at this position in time.

Bianchi sent him a worried look as they walked further down the length of the building. She pushed his hair back and out of his eyes in hopes of making him a little more comfortable.

_'I hope he's okay… I wonder what all that was about?'_

"My mind recoiled under pressure," he begun to explain. Fed halted in his step when Shuan suddenly spoke; his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"What are you talking about, Shuan?" He asked him over his shoulder. Shuan's felt a rush of dread as he realised what he had done.

Oh… shit.

Bianchi's eyes went wide, "I…" She shot her attention to Fed, "I didn't say anything out loud… did I?"

Fed pressed his lips together grimly.

"No, no you didn't but we shouldn't talk about this here."

She hesitantly nodded in agreement.

Shuan sagged in defeat, he knew this was a terrible idea.

_'**G—**' _The thought was sliced off cleanly and followed by an eerily feeling silence.

His body immediately tensed back up. He flinched at the sudden intrusion before furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, it sounded like a thought, yet it was suddenly cut off. At least it wasn't static. There was always the chance that someone had just forgotten about something mid-thought and cut themselves off, but he knew better than to make assumptions.

_'Ugh! I seriously hope Sofia finished that project, I swear I'm going to–'_

Something cut the thought in half. _'**GE–**'_ …that one too…? A repeat no-less, and it's progressing.

He screwed his eyes shut. What was it trying to say? Get down? Guests? He hoped to the dear lord that this mind was friendly, as unlikely as it was in reality.

The thoughts continued to flood through his brain as the pure silence shattered.

_'–I swear I'm going to kill someone if she couldn't do such a simple task.'_

The thought from before had continued as if nothing happened.

Shuan felt dizzy.

"What to next?" Bianchi casually asked Fed as she walked along beside him with a casual glide to her steps.

He was silent for a moment but his expression displayed signs of contemplation.

"We can go to my room and get Shuan some sleep. We'll have to wait for him to get more comfortable before we can figure out what's going –"

**_'GET OUT._**_'_

Shuan jerked back violently and his muscles spasmed causing him to fly out of Fed's hold. Bianchi barely caught him before he hit the ground.

His body slumped against her. His mind had sent his body into a freaking seizure, at least now he knew that he was significantly uninformed about the physical capabilities of the mind.

Bianchi's face went pale when she couldn't feel his chest moving, pulled him close to her and pressed her ear against his chest.

In…out…in– she could hear breaths, thin breaths but it was getting better as his body calmed down after the shock to his system.

Fed pulled Shuan's chin to face him to make sure that he was still conscious. His face was pale and his eyes were half-lidded, his breath was short, too short.

Shuan pushed through his blurry mind and shook himself back into focus.

"Get…out…" He panted out between breaths. "W-we… need… run."

Fed didn't hesitate to turn around so Bianchi could get Shuan on his back, but she hesitated. Her eyes flew between the two boys with worry.

He narrowed his eyes, "Come on!" he urged her.

She did as she was told. Her body trusted his word enough to move through the frozen pressure.

_'They're on the way, second floor, left staircase. Get the one holding the boy.'_

Shuan tsked through his teeth. He tried to talk but racked up in violent coughs. Bianchi ran a gentle hand up and down his back to calm him, but his mind was too fucked up with issues to even notice. Fuck he needed to get the message to them and fast.

He tugged roughly at Fed's arm causing him to halt his movements. A frustrated noise erupted from the back of his throat and he ushered him to keep moving.

.-.. . ..-. -... - .- .. .-.-.. .- -. -. . .-.

If this little shit didn't know morse code, Shuan was going to neck him before any assassin could.

Fed turned on his heel and went into the nearest room. "Danger? What's dangerous?"

Oh, thank the lords.

Shuan shrugged weakly and gestured to the giant windows of the room.

Fed paled, "Oh come on!" he whined. "Please tell me you aren't asking us to jump out of the windows."

Bianchi was at the windows in an instant and pulled them open. She looked down. "It's not actually that bad." She helpfully informed him.

Fed sweat dropped, "This is the second floor, Bianchi."

She sent him a flat look.

"You think I don't know that? Please. Second floor is nothing, we jumped out of the 3rd floor school windows every _month._"

A defeated sigh escaped him.

"You know what? Fine." He backed up but Bianchi held up a hand to stop him.

"I'm going first."

Fed didn't even have a chance to protest before she leapt out of the window.

_'Outside?! How?!'_

He released a frustrated sigh before following suit and taking his leap. As soon as his feet hit the ground, they bolted it out of the grounds. Gunshots could be heard scraping against the walls that fenced the Vongola property when they turned the corner.

Shuan pushed off Fed's back once they got a decent distance away. The Vongola grounds were surrounded by years of forest to pacify their overwhelming paranoia, but their men were significantly more familiar with the forestry than they were.

They had time, just not a lot of it.

He huffed out a puff of air, bent over with his hands on his knees to stabilise himself.

"I'm fine," he panted out. "Just… just a little out of it."

Fed rolled his eyes, "No shit, now come on!" He turned back around to continue moving out of the forest, "We need to get out of here."

Shuan grabbed his arm and wrenched him back. Fed paused due to the restriction.

Shuan's muscles screamed after the sudden usage and he barely held back a wince.

"Do you still have your phone on you?" He asked, "Give it to Bianchi to destroy."

Fed narrowed his eyes in confusion but did so anyway and lobbed his cell to Bianchi. They were always taught never to keep important information on them anyway. They were too easily destroyed and hacked into, to the point where it would be essentially pointless and unnecessarily risky to store anything on them.

"We can't run by foot. We'll be caught in no time." Shuan continued.

Fed released an agitated sigh as his eyes darted around them to make sure they were safe, "Then what do you suppose we do–"

Shuan slipped out cards from his pocket and all three to Fed. They stared at the objects than at him in bewilderment.

"Chuck them to the ground and step on them, you should probably thank Lu for being such a reckless kid."

Roaring engines could be heard approaching their location.

Fed was hesitating and it really wasn't the time to do that. "Wait, what–"

Shuan growled and snatched the cards back from his grip and triggering the contraption for him.

He shoved his friend onto it, through the explosion of flames that spawned from the device.

Then Fed went flying with a manly scream.

Bianchi stared at Fed's fading form in bewilderment before letting a snort slip by, "…what the fuck?"

Shuan rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm to urge her along.

"Come on, that was my only escape device, so we need to go. That amount of flames would probably be a flare to anyone within a 10-mile radius and I'd really prefer it if we weren't here long enough for them to catch up."

Bianchi's eyes lingered on the empty space that Fed once occupied but nodded and let Shuan drag her by the arm through the trees, "…point taken." She spoke back absentmindedly.

* * *

Back at base, Verde received a notification that Shuan's emergency retreat devices had been activated and was currently on their way there.

He huffed, feeling annoyed and pressed the intercom that linked him to Watari.

"Shuan activated the escape pod." He informed him absentmindedly as he continued to work on his current project.

A concerned hum was what he received in reply. "Shuan's coordinates are not moving towards us with the escape device's though, perhaps he sent someone different."

Lu walked into Watari's office, Yuni was sitting happily in her arms with Cosmo in her own, "It's probably Rico, something must have happened."

Watari leaned back in his seat and turned to her with a disapproving frown.

"You'd do well to start explaining things, young lady. I've given you a lot of freedom lately but that doesn't mean you should refrain from informing me of life-threatening operations such as this."

Lu sunk back slightly but nodded strongly, "I understand, and I promise I won't do it again…– but anyway, Fed told us that he was the last of his siblings, his older brothers had been murdered. So Bia and Shuan went to help protect him since he didn't have any guardians."

Verde's voice transmitted through the intercom, free of static.

"I heard about that one. Sent the Vongola into a panic."

Lu glanced at the coordinates on screen as Cosmo moved from her shoulder into Yuni's waiting arms, "I can go get him?" She asked Watari with hopeful eyes.

The old man's lips pursed in contemplation, "I will be going with you."

Lu's eyes went wide for a brief moment of surprise. It had been a while since Watari had insisted on coming along with her.

Her eyes lit up none-the-less, she was elated to be able to go out with him again and not be a bother.

"Did you hear that Yuni?" she whispered with a tiny smile, Yuni craned her neck up to face Lu curiously. "Watari's gonna come with us!"

She tilted her head and Lu pointed towards Watari, "Wa-ta-ri" she spelt out for the girl.

"Wa-wa, Ooooh!"

At that point Lu's eyes were glimmering in pride.

"Mn! Watari!"

"Ooooh, Wa-wa!"

Watari, whom was silently pulling out emergency equipment from his office compartments, watched the little interaction from the corner of his eye.

A brief smile made its way onto his face.

* * *

Fed arrived in Capo with a very attractive "Fuck you, Shuan" grumbled under his breath.

The landing was awkward and uncomfortable, more so for his backside and pride than anything. Dust fluttered into the air as the contraption's engines flared to a stop.

After a little toying around with the mathematics and coordinates on Verde's little tablet that she _borrowed_, they, being Watari and Lu (and Yuni) had managed to identify the landing spot to be just around the corner from Mario and Luca's Jolly Market.

It was barely out of public view but at least it was out of it at all. It would have been worse if they had to wing out an explanation to random tourists about their 'science project' that was 100% safe.

As the dust cloud cleared, it revealed Fed's usually neatly styled head of hair, sticking out in odd directions. It was way too amusing for Lu _not_ to laugh at.

He rolled his eyes at her when the dust cloud cleared revealing both girls giggling in the amusement of his physical state.

Well, Yuni was mostly laughing as an extension to Lu's amusement.

He let out an amused laced groan, "Whilst it's great that you find my predicament amusing, Lia, can you explain exactly what that thing Shuan threw me onto was?"

The fog cleared further and the shadowed silhouette beside the girls cleared to reveal Watari's unamused look. Fed paled several shades under his gaze, "Uh… hey Watari," he greeted with a sheepish rub to the back on his neck.

Watari presented him with a curt nod but no words.

It took Lu a moment to calm herself down from her giggles.

"Y-yeah," she let out a tiny snort before bursting into another set of giggles.

Fed sighed in fond exasperation, smoothed his hair back and shook his head to return it back to its natural state. "Better?"

She nodded through her laughter.

Fed pushed himself up onto his feet and collected the disassembled parts of the device.

Lu faux coughed into her fist to recompose herself, "Right, so that was an escape device that Verde made for me when I was little because I always did reckless stuff."

He eyed the cards in his hands with interest.

"Oh, they can also be used as bombs too." He instantly dropped the cards as if they were boiling hot.

Watari, his expression being as neutral as ever, stood with his gaze locked on the boy, "If that were a bomb, dropping it like that may have killed us all." He informed Fed lightly.

Fed's face went white as a sheet and Watari chuckled light-heartedly.

"Luckily, that one doesn't have bomb properties. In fact, I tinkered with it myself as Shuan had the tendency to use them as bombs rather than keeping them as a last resort escape."

Lu huffed an amused laugh, "Any of them can be bombs in my hands, though." She bent down to gather the cards up, "Don't worry, it won't explode outside of anyone with my flame signature."

A sigh of relief escaped him, "Thank god." Lu snorted.

Yuni gurgled happily and reached out to him.

Fed eyed the girl curiously, he was honestly surprised at her movements, he was almost positive that the kid heavily disliked him.

Lu held Yuni out to him and he hesitantly lifted the child out of her arms and kept her at an awkward half-arm length.

Yuni burst into joyful giggles, "Pa!" she squealed, waving her hands towards him.

Pink crept up his neck as Watari wrenched open a curious eye. A slight smirk slid onto his face before he coughed into his fist to conceal his purposeful expression, however, it was much too late, it had already been seen and the damage had been done.

Lu's face flushed in embarrassment.

Watari inclined his head inquisitively towards the pair, "Am I missing out on something here?" he probed playfully.

"N-O, No!" Lu denied, her arms dramatically flying out to form an 'x' in front of her body.

Fed brought Yuni closer to his body and the little sky made herself comfortable within his body warmth. She tucked her face into the crook of his neck.

Fed laughed awkwardly and stroked the girl's hair gently. "…uhh, no?" he replied intelligently and heavily delayed.

Lu paused and blinked curiously at the scene, her arms slowly falling back to her sides.

"Pa!" Yuni cooed out again.

Lu couldn't believe what she was witnessing but fell resigned to her fate with a deep sigh.

Watari nodded along solemnly and patted the boy on the shoulder.

"Good luck, young man. I expect nothing but gentlemanly actions from you to both of my girls."

Fed felt bewildered as his eyes darted between the three of them. Waitwaitwaitwaitwait–

He opened his mouth to protest but was cut off when Lu nodded back to Watari with a grim face.

"I see."

Fed blanched, "See what?!"

* * *

Vongola Forests, several minutes after Federico had been sent to safety

They weren't going to get out without a fight, Shuan could sense them approaching. Their thoughts promised pain on them for mixed reasons.

He didn't know how things got so messed up from a simple assassination escape, yet here they were, under the attack of both the Vongola and the assassins themselves.

_'Kill the guards, kill the guards, kill the guards. We can use the chaos to remove the heir's guards!'_

_'Save the heir! We need to save the heir, they kidnapped him. They're controlling him! Our **heir!**'_

It was as clear as day that Nono wanted to protect Fed but killing them was not the way to do it.

With the invasion and other presences in Nono's mind, Shuan could make no assumptions without them being flooded with unknowns. At this point, he didn't even know if Nono was still alive, if he was just a puppet for the owners of those eyes to control, or if he really believed what he was doing was right.

The most likely scenario that ran through his head was that Nono was in there somewhere but not fully. He had enough influence over himself to care.

Shuan ruffled his hair in frustration, this was getting terribly messy.

He led Bianchi along, weaving through the trees to reduce the chance of being directly shot at.

"Go, go, go!" he yelled as he swung the girl from a bullet and further ahead of him.

Her eyes shot wide in a panic, but she continued to run on autopilot.

They were gaining on them.

Fuck.

"They're going to catch up…" Bianchi whimpered out. She was terrified, terrified and still young.

She didn't want to die at 16, she had so much she wanted to do. She wanted to be the bride of honour at Lu's wedding she wanted to see Hayato happy, she wanted her friends to be safe.

She wanted love in her own life too.

She wanted the love that her parents never had.

Shuan sucked in a sharp breath, she was right. They were going to catch up if they didn't do something quickly.

"…are you prepared to fight for your life, Bianchi?"

Welled up tears flew out into the passing wind as they continued to run.

If she said no, Shuan would go and fight alone. He would buy her time to escape, she had the choice to fight or run and he wouldn't judge her for either.

She clenched her teeth, "I'm ready to fight!" she spat out, visibly reluctant but resolved to do what she believed was right.

_'I don't want to die… I don't want anyone to die!'_

"I'm ready to fight for my family and for our safety" she whispered out.

Shuan nodded stiffly before sliding to a stop.

"Then let's fight. Fight and live, that's your one job. **Live.**"

Something lodged itself in her throat.

_'My family and friends are the most important thing in the world to me...'_

Shuan's head shot to her in concern, his eyes barely keeping track of her as she dove into the fight.

"What are you– Bianchi!"

_'I'm not going to let him die!'_

* * *

**Lil Hamari**

**Haha! It's no problem at all and thanks so much for taking the time to review!**

**Lu is stubborn in not wanting to be a burden. If it comes out to the others that they broke bonds with her it would come from others and heavily unlikely from her directly. She's a little frustrating like that, she'll bottle everything up until she bursts.**

**As for Reborn, never :(... Jokes, jokes, in the far future perhaps and not anytime soon. Reborn isn't one to be pinned down, even to the sky arcobaleno and he knows that she already has a sun. That, along with the fact that Lu is completely and utterly bond paranoid at the moment, would take time to form anything with any other element, even if it's Reborn.**

**Nuvola De Demone**

**To be completely honest, your rambles make my day! ^^ Seeing someone so interested is quite flattering. Thanks again for reviewing! **

**Now, Future Lu's role? Rip, well, we'll see what happens when it gets there~**

**The Future arc that I'm thinking of at the current moment is a complete flip, I'm definetly hoping that you lot will find the twist interesting.**

**Lastly, in regards to your suggestions for side stories, I'd be happy to do it. I'll jot down your suggestions for later~ It sounds like a bunch of fun could happen in those. **

**[ We're currently 2-years from the beginning of Canon but there should be a ton will be going down before it. ]**

**kelsey-kianna**

**No problem! and thank _you_ for reviewing~**


	21. Just the Things You Do

**I tried my best ;-; I didn't want to leave on a cliffhanger for so long so I winged this one up in my spare-ish time. I hope it's satisfactory~**

**I'm gonna be a little honest here, but I'm considering on taking a little break from the story and coming back later if you know what I mean. I've just been so out of the KHR loop recently, but I know that I always come back to it because KHR is like my childhood love. I don't want to give out half-hearted chapters that feel like a marathon to write just because I'm not feeling it.**

**It's still a consideration, and I'll actually decide once my finals are done but we'll see. It might change if I have more time to waste away on writing.**

* * *

**Timestamp:**

**Yuni – 3  
Tsuna, Hayato - 13  
Lu, Bianchi – 17  
Shuan, Fed – 21  
Watari – 71**

* * *

**_\- Vongola Forests, Sicily, Italy –_**

"What are you– Bianchi!"

Shuan conjured up several barriers to trap her in place and to counteract the storm infused bullets that fired her way.

"What are you doing?!" He hissed, "We either fight together or I fight alone. You are _not_ playing the martyr."

Shuan rolled off to the side to dodge incoming shots and take refuge behind a tree. "Lu isn't allowed to die for us, and neither are you." He scolded.

Her eyes lowered to the grassy floor, "I know…" she murmured.

_'I just wanted to make sure you got back to her…'_

"She won't be happy unless we're _both_ back to her," he urged. He hissed out a wince when a storm bullet grazed his arm, tearing through the material of his dress shirt.

"Shuan!" Bianchi yelled in concern, attracting eyes and bullet to her position. Shuan's mist barriers still held up strong and dissipated any that came by.

"Fucker," he growled, drenching the red flames in mist before it could spread.

_'Talk like this, Bianchi.' Shuan commanded directly into her mind. 'I'm going to drop the barrier and I need you to drench this whole entire fucking forest in flames. They don't have Croquant Bouche anymore, they can't fight against a storm forest fire. My cloud will amplify it but I need you to light the fire.'_

Her breaths were ragged with panic, _'But… but what if I can't?! I can't think, Shuan! I'm scared, I'm scared!'_

_'Calm down!' he hissed, 'Breathe, Bianchi. **Breathe**.'_

Her breaths weren't getting any smoother, if anything they were just ramping up her heart rate to a dangerous level. She fell to her knees.

_'**Bianchi!'**_ _he scolded, but his delivery didn't snap her out of it. Thoughts had no volume, nothing to jumpstart her._

They were getting closer, Shuan could feel the blood pumping through his veins; if they got any closer he was going to die, he didn't have enough flames to keep a shield up for both of them.

Bianchi needed to breathe, she needed to snap out of it and listen.

"**Bianchi!**" he scowled out-loud; the bullets suddenly started to rain on his position. He had no other choice; he needed the spark to light the fire and that spark was Bianchi.

To his relief, her eyes had cleared up and she was coherent once more.

_'The fire, Bianchi!' he reminded her urgently, 'just a flicker, anything. I just need a spark.'_

She stared frozen at her trembling hands, _'Nothing's happening!' she sobbed, 'I'm trying, I'm trying!'_

Fuck. Was it wrong that he almost wanted to cry right now?

A Vongola Mafioso ran past his position, Shuan's eyes shot wide in panic, following desperately with the soldier's movements.

Everything felt like it was in slow motion as more and more mafioso flew past his position and turned to attack.

Shuan threw himself back roughly, his mind was fixated strongly on keep the barrier up around Bianchi. He swung himself around the barrier box that kept her safe and using it to shield_ him_ from further bullet rains.

A dust storm rose from the bullets making contact with the soft dirt; Shuan breathed heavily, leaning tiredly against the barrier walls.

He laughed out bitterly between heavy breaths.

He was tired, just so tired.

_Come on! _He nagged his brain; we _needed_ a way out and fast, but he was completely burnt out of flames.

_'…do you think Dino's famiglia can beat down the Vongola?'_

Bianchi was silent for a moment before his question rushed to her brain all at once and she blanched, _'What? No! This is the V-O-N-G-O-L-A, dimwit.'_

_'right. Fuck. Ok.'_

He let out another irritated sigh and pushed himself to his feet, dispelling the backside of the shield and grabbing her wrist.

"Start running," he demanded, "and don't you dare come back for me."

She opened her mouth to protest, "What—"

"I'll be right behind you, okay?" that was a lie, he could barely feel his legs and he was drowning in adrenaline, "get going and hurry up."

Bianchi looked hesitant but agreed none-the-less.

"…a-alright." She agreed before bolting off with Shuan struggling to keep up, right behind her.

* * *

**_\- The Watari House, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy –_**

Verde deployed about two dozens of escape devices to Shuan's tracker location; he knew that the cloud kid wasn't one to utilise his provided technology for fun and games, it was serious.

Bianchi and Shuan had chosen to attend to the Vongola boy's safety due to the impending assassinations and something must have happened if they sent the boy back by himself.

Verde just hoped that 24 devices were enough and that at least 2 would get through to them because that was all the devices he had prepared at the moment. He sent all he could.

The arcobaleno was severely irritated for the fact that they had tinkered with their original escape watches for offensive purposes. So much that they had somehow disabled the initial purpose of the accessory to an offensive side. It was also his own fault for not checking on them before they left, he was distracted and not paying proper attention.

_Ding!_

Watari and the kids were back but Verde's eyes were glued on the screen, just watching the status' of the machines.

All 24 were getting close to the Vongola grounds, they just needed to get past the forest guards.

_Come on, come on…_

Verde groaned, _now_ he was feeling regret? He shouldn't have let those brats go into Vongola territory in the first place. He should have just locked them up in the basement.

Dread began to drain into his skin as he watched the numbers flash.

_12._

Half of the drones were gone, and they hadn't even gotten within 5km of the gate.

How did that Vongola kid _get out?_ Did they have a tracker on him and were told not to shoot?

This was the worst freaking time for the other Vongola aligned arcobaleno to be out of the fucking country.

Verde heard the door to his office open and heard the light footsteps that belonged to Watari, enter.

"Watari," he greeted.

The old man grunted a reply, "What's the status of the other two?"

He wasted no time getting straight to the point.

Verde watched as several drones were shut down one after the other.

_5._

He gritted his teeth, "I would be happy to get even one of them back at this rate."

Watari tsked and breathed in sharply. He and death were long friends, he wasn't a stranger to death taking his friends and family away but he never wanted this to happen. None of them did; especially when those two had barely started their lives.

_Click, click, click._

_2._

"…I would recommend getting Luculia to the infirmary." He suggested.

Watari wordlessly turned on his heel and acted.

* * *

Fed smiled weakly as they entered the base.

Watari had split off from the group to go to Verde's office and Fon had joined them the moment they arrived.

The glow of their, being Fon's and Luculia's pacifiers, was a beautiful sight to behold.

"Hello," the storm greeted him.

Fed nodded stiffly in reply, "Hello."

Yuni grinned at the familiar face and squealed, "Fon!", reaching out for Fon causing Lu to let her gently on the floor so she could have better access to the baby-sized man.

It had been a little while since she had started talking but she rarely said anything other than names for whatever reason. They knew she could, but she chose not to; they reckoned she was just a quiet kid.

When she crouched down to do so, a shock of pain flashed through her chest and she gasped, clutching her hands into herself.

"…Ma?" Yuni said worriedly, reaching out for her and patting anywhere that she could reach.

Fon approached her with furrowed brows, "What happened?" he asked.

Lu shook her head roughly as if it would shake any of the fuzziness in her brain.

"No…" she replied, "I'm fine."

Fon wasn't convinced but chose not to pursue.

Watari entered the room barely a moment after, his steps purposely heavy to announce his entrance.

He strode directly up to Lu and scooped the girl into his arms with Yuni whining in protest as she got further out of the child's reach. Lu didn't fight the movement.

_1._

"Watari, Luculia," Verde called out through the intercom.

"Yes?" Watari replied, "What is it?"

Verde sighed aggravatedly, "Hurry up and get Luculia placed in the infirmary."

Watari's expression turned grim.

"Has it come to that?"

The words that came next rang loudly in both Lu and Fed's ears. They both went rigid and Lu's breathing got worryingly short, her heart rate skyrocketing.

_"One of those two are going to die today. Bianchi or Shuan; only time will tell which one survives. Only one escape drone got through."_

Lu wanted to cry. Those were her best friends.

* * *

**_\- Vongola Forests, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy –_**

Bianchi slowed her pace to let Shuan catch up, "Hey, Shuan—"

Shuan frowned, "Keep running," he scolded, "Run and talk if you need."

The weak remainder of his mist barrier that he spread over a distance was delaying them decently, but he wasn't about to wait around for them to catch up.

She started up her pace once more.

"Continue." He prompted. He would have suggested for them to talk telepathically but he didn't have the flames to spare.

"Your bracelet, it has flames in it doesn't it?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, "Everything but mist flames at the moment because I drained literally all of it."

"…I see."

Shuan didn't like how she was talking, he wanted to dive into her head and see what reckless things she was thinking of but he was physically unable to do so. He needed to focus all he had left into that barrier.

After her last stunt, he was seriously concerned with what she was considering—

_Bang!_

A sharp pain shot up his leg and he tumbled down into the grass, slamming into a nearby tree with a groan. His eyes welled up, "Fuck." He hissed in pain.

Bianchi's eyes went wide as she slid into a stop, barely dragging him behind a tree before the next bullet came past.

"I thought they were still really far away!" she whispered harshly.

Shuan groaned, "I thought so too but apparently fucking not."

Several more gunshots were heard all around them.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Bianchi's head snapped towards the sound, immediately assuming it was some sort of grenade. But it wasn't.

They were cards, _very familiar _cards and they were barely alive. They were grazed but still functional. It was an escape device like the one before, maybe they could actually get out—

She paled several shades as realisation flushed over her.

There was only one.

Her eyes darted to Shuan who was curled up into a ball behind the tree, clutching at the bullet wound in his leg in agony.

If she just left him— No!

She shook those thought out of her head. She couldn't just leave him, he would most definitely die.

If either of them had a chance of surviving on foot, it would be her.

The cards between her fingers trembled with her hands.

It was so close, she wanted to whimper. She could just _go_ and Shuan wouldn't have thought twice about it. If he knew that this device was here, he would have insisted on it.

But she didn't want that. She didn't want to imagine life without him there. The group would have a gaping hole in it; her heart would have an empty gap pierced through it too.

Movement was seen from the corner of her eye and she immediately slipped the cards into her pocket and sprang into action, diving to the side and launching a large poison pie of some sort at the man's face.

After a few squelching moments, he was gone, and the air was silent. She didn't have much time.

She was going to do it.

Bianchi rushed up to Shuan and he watched her cautiously through pained eyes.

"What are you doing?" he croaked out.

She just smiled, "Saving your ass." She slipped the cards back out of her pocket and Shuan stared at them in a mix of horror and relief; mostly the former.

"No, no, no, no, no—" he borderline sobbed up, backing away from her. "Bianchi, you can't. You have to take them yourself."

She shook her head and his heart dropped to his stomach, "You can't be serious… If you stay, you'll die!"

Bianchi clenched her teeth, lit her palm full of vibrant red flames and channelled it into the cards, causing it to morph itself into the escape drone it was meant to be.

Tears stung at her eyes.

As she dragged a struggling Shuan onto the top surface of the drone.

"Bianchi, _please_." He begged through a sob, "Don't do this, _please._ Take it yourself, take it yourself."

She silently smiled, a tear falling from one eye as she pulled him into her arms.

"Thank you." She said, "Thank you for everything."

Bianchi slipped the bracelet off his wrist and activated the drone.

Shuan couldn't do anything against her, his body was so weak and vulnerable from both the bullet wound, blood loss and flame drainage. All he could do was lie there and relish in the few moments of comfort he had.

He didn't know if the drone would actually get him out. He didn't know whether Fed actually survived.

He didn't want to think that Bianchi wouldn't make it back.

He heard commotion approaching rapidly and the engines of the drone rearing up.

He knew that he just had to accept it. If he tried to get off the machine, both of them would die and he didn't have the strength to force her on.

"Try to live?" he begged. "Try everything, you can do it. I believe you can do it, you're so strong."

Bianchi pulled away, smiled and patted his hair. He never wanted her fingers to leave.

"I'll try." She promised.

Gunshots and screams were all he heard as he flew away.

* * *

**_\- Watari House, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy –_**

Lia's body was convulsing violently, and Fed felt helpless.

He didn't know how to help her, or how bad she was feeling. He had never created bonds with others, he had never had guardians and he couldn't even relate.

She skin was getting cold and foam was bubbling from her mouth.

Yuni was hysterical at this point, she was crying her heart and soul out for Lia's pain. Fed knew that Yuni hated seeing Lia sad, let alone dying.

Verde was in the room watching over her vitals and making sure she was still alive.

He reported that the _single drone_, how it hurt him to think about it, had been deployed in return. The person that returned would likely be heavily injured and with the state of their physical forms, Watari needed to be at least one of the people that went to retrieve the person.

Due to that fact, Verde didn't have the privilege to sit by his computer and monitor _who_ was coming back, if any, and _how_ they were. He was required to stay present in the infirmary to watch over their sky.

After a series of convulsions, Lia's body went worryingly still, but her vitals were fine, her flame levels were fine. She was alive.

They all knew the reality and fact due to Luculia's physical reaction. Someone had died and someone was coming back, still with the potential of dying themselves.

Fed felt destroyed; he felt like _he had destroyed._ This whole situation was all his fault and he knew that the arcobaleno that faced him knew it too, yet their feelings of pity and perhaps to a polite degree; they weren't willing to speak on it.

Yuni's crying suddenly grew louder. Or, perhaps his brain had suddenly chosen to adjust to hearing to past his feelings.

"Comfort the kid, Federico." Verde demanded, clicking some buttons to adjust. "We can't have her being so hysterical in the room."

The Vongola heir scooped Yuni into his arms but that only made it worse; Verde flinched at the volume.

Her cries only served to get louder and louder the further she got away from Lu.

"Ma**aamaaaaaa!**" Yuni cried, "Give Mama back!" her cries melted into agonising screams.

Verde just stared at her, "Did she just talk? Like actually talk?"

Fed didn't reply as he also stared at the child in silent bewilderment.

_"**Mamaa!"**_

Verde tsked, "Put her back."

Yuni was instantly quelled.

"Mama…?" Yuni sobbed out, her flames trickling out of her star and towards Lu's as she crawled up her body.

The three around her watched her silently as Yuni subconsciously used her flames to fill the cracked holes in Lu's flame core.

"Maaamaa!" she called out again, in hopes of getting a reaction but nothing happened.

Yuni crawled up to Lu's chest and gently dropped her head against it like how Lu would always cuddle her to sleep. Yuni listened to the sounds of her heartbeat in sync with the monitoring machine.

"Mamaa…" she whispered out once more.

Fed reached over and stroked Yuni's hair back to comfort her, but the silent tears and sobs that racked her body never ceased.

* * *

Fon secured himself upon Watari's shoulder as the old man bolted out of the house with a tablet in hand.

"Who is it?" Fon asked grimly, he would need to know eventually. The reaction that Luculia had could have been from either of them because she was so close to both.

Watari punched several points on the screen and pulled up a map with a pulsing red dot that showed the position of the drone.

"I don't know" he replied, "For all I know at this point, both of them could be dead and that's an empty drone. We can't tell until it arrives."

Watari weaved through the streets, flicking back and forth between buildings and alleys.

Stefano 1, spotted him on his way to that café.

"Oh, hey guys—" Watari just ran right past.

Stefano huffed dramatically, "Rude much." He said, but he knew that Watari was nothing less than a perfect gentleman unless under tension.

Stefano decided to tag along and trail after them to see if he could help in any way.

Father Nicolas was already outside of the church when the drone landed. His presence caused curious passer-by tourist to refrain from taking pictures in case they contracted some sort of insult or threat upon his person. They knew that insulting him would therefore insult several others alongside him and it would only prove to make them suffer. Locals had the decency not to do so already.

The pastor immediately began to tend to the familiar boy's wound as he landed.

Watari, Fon and Stefano arrived barely a few seconds later to the scene and the uncharacteristic choked sigh of relief that erupted from the back of his throat was audible but not mentioned by the other two.

The fact that Bianchi wasn't coming back was like a slap to the face, she wasn't his ward, but he had known the girl for a solid amount of years and had watched her grow.

She was **_17._** She hadn't even had the chance to hit adulthood.

He quickly made his way over to Shuan. The bullet was still in his calf and they needed to take it out before he could heal anything.

But that would likely involve a lot of screaming and they were currently outside a church and in public.

"Remove the bullet," Father Nicolas advised, "No-one will spare a glance."

Watari hesitated but agreed; this was his long term friend that had never failed him before, he must've had some sort of plan up his sleeves.

Watari opened his box of tools and begun the extraction.

Stefano jogged up to them and stumbled back in surprise, "Oh shit, kid. You look like shit."

Shuan grinned through his pain, "Oh thanks, Stephano—FUCK"

His agonised and pained screams were painful to hear but the extraction was fast and Watari's sun flames went to work to repair the injured wound.

"If any of you were by yourself," he started, packing everything up as Father Nicolas kindly wrapped Shuan's leg up for comfort purposes, "I would recommend never taking the bullet out because you'll bleed out without a sun."

Stefano laughed nervously, "I'll, uh… keep that in mind?"

"That would be very smart," Fon agreed, "please do that."

Stefano sweatdropped, "Right, okay…"

* * *

With thanks to Father Nicolas for his aid, and for his mysterious coverage, the rest of them headed home with Shuan lugged over Watari's back and Fon on Stefano's shoulder.

It had been a long, long time since Stefano took a step into Watari's house.

Verde stood that the elevator entrance that led into the house as they arrived, and his eyes immediately fixated onto the blond-haired boy that Watari was carrying.

"Shuan, huh…" he said before walking off in the direction of the clinic.

"Lu is fine, she's alive but unconscious. Her flames are dulling, though. At this point, she has about a fifth of her original capacity, and that excludes the arcobaleno effect on her flames."

Stephano was about to ask when Verde sharply cut him off.

"I did the calculations. I'm an arcobaleno, I know how to calculate it."

"…right." Stefano trailed off. These people were insane, but then again, so was he.

* * *

**_\- Namimori, Japan –_**

**_Note: Everything here is in Japanese so I'm not gonna bother italicizing it._**

Reborn received a phone call that he had hoped he would never have to receive for another 20 years at least.

One of those kids was dead, and it was the one he had the most contact with aside from Luculia herself.

Bianchi was dead.

Fon had been the one to ring him up as the rest of them were dealing with the medical side of the situation. Both Shuan and Luculia were out cold and healing from the event and they were still trying to find a way to keep both themselves _and_ Federico safe without resorting to banishment.

They weren't that heartless— Actually, they would have easily exiled him if it wasn't for the fact that Bianchi had essentially and partially died for the boy. They weren't heartless enough to waste away her memory.

The worst part about the call was that Fon asked him to tell Gokudera.

Whilst Reborn knew how to deal with it and _could_ deal with delivering bad news, didn't mean he necessarily wanted to nor liked to do it.

But he had the respect for the late mafiosa to do this at the very least.

"Oi, Dame-Tsuna!" he yelled out, kicking the boy out of his bed.

"HIIIIEEE!" Tsuna screamed, falling to the floor. "Reborn! What was that for—" he cut himself off at the sight of Reborn's grim expression. It wasn't normal and something felt _off._

He glanced at the clock.

_8:28 am._

He was late, HE WAS LATe.

He scrambled to his feet, he needed to get ready—

"Sit down, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn commanded, "You're skipping class today for your subordinate. Gokudera is coming over so I can talk to him and _you're_ going to be there for him like a good boss."

Tsuna's shoulder sagged, "…okay." He agreed easily. Hayato was one of his closest friends that taught him through everything and anything he struggled with since he was little. He even got dragged into this mafia business willingly.

If there was anything Tsuna could do to repay him in the slightest, he would do it.

* * *

Hayato arrived not too long after, at approximately 8:45, dressed in casual and comfortable clothes.

Nana had been informed by Reborn that Tsuna was taking a mental health day under his instruction and that it was important for his health. Nana took to the reason easily and called Tsuna in sick.

Hayato was immediately directed from the empty kitchen to Tsuna's bedroom, where Kyoya had decided to drop in and was standing, leaning against the wall with a grim frown.

"What's going on, Reborn-san?" He asked, sitting himself down near the table.

Reborn pursed his lips together.

"There really is no way lighter to put this," he said.

Hayato felt the incoming dread; he wasn't going to like this in the least.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Gokudera, but Bianchi was killed by the Vongola."

* * *

**idk maaan ;-;**

* * *

_**To KooraX:**_

I'm sorry for the wait (and for the lack of Lu scenes), just some of these events centralise on other characters so we can't hang around Lu for them D:

Will there be romance? Yes and no? Romance was never the main point, it was more about the family/friends concept but romance will always inevitably linger around.

Speaking of Dino, he'll be coming in soon to join Tsuna since Canon has essentially started. (I believe Japanese kids start middle school at 13?)

Who are Lu's guardians right now? Fon, Storm. Watari, Sun. Verde, Lightning. Shuan, Cloud. I'm half sure I didn't forget anyone.

Thank you so much for your review! And I'm glad you like it, I don't actually think my writing nor plot has been really any good so that's rather flattering xD

_**To VividReader365:**_

First of all, thank you so much for your PM and review, it was honestly very heartwarming to read. It only made it better that you were half asleep :^)

I'm super happy that you've liked the story so far, I'm glad that you found that characterisation good (because I've just been rolling with it, honestly) hahaha.

Thank you a bunch for your support, both in the writing realm and in the student death realm ^^! Feel free to ask questions anytime, whether through review or PM, I'll find a way and a time to get back to you~

**_To kelsey-kianna:_**

Aww! Thank you for the review and I hope this chapter is somewhat okay? hahaha.


	22. Assemble

Hey guys! I'm currently working on fully pre-writing another project so what happened with this story and How to Raise a Hitman doesn't happen again when I lose inspiration. I'll pop by every now and again to try to get a chapter out. I figured my original plot was rather overdramatic. so I'm working on a more realistic ending as I go along.

**It's been a while so a little recap from the end of the last chapter: **

\- Fed was sent to Watari's base for safety, Bianchi died, Shuan got shot in the leg but got saved. Lu is incapacitated due to the breaking of Bianchi's bond. Reborn took on the mantle of telling Hayato about Bianchi.

_"I'm sorry for your loss, Gokudera, but Bianchi was killed by the Vongola." - Reborn_

* * *

Gokudera barked out a laugh, "HaHA! Good one, Reborn-san," he laughed, "Good one." He chuckled even further, slightly weak. "You... you almost got me there."

Kyoya averted his gaze with respect for his comrade's dignity.

Reborn tilted his head down, his fedora shadowing his face. He knew the signs of grief more than anyone.

"Luculia is incapacitated and Shuan has been shot. Federico is with the both of them."

Tsuna stiffened up at the thought. This was _exactly _why he didn't want to be involved in this stuff, it was dangerous! But...

He glanced hesitantly at Gokudera whose eyes were cast down as he struggled to maintain his cracking composure.

"It's all his fault isn't it...?" Gokudera mumbled, his usually bright eyes were singed with a dull grey. "Federico di Vongola. And you still expect me to fight for the Vongola?"

Reborn looked up at him, "No. I don't expect you to fight for the Vongola but I expect you to fight for your sky. The massive internal conflict within the Vongola has led us to this point and with all capable heirs in our possession, we_ will _sort this out." Reborn walked over to the window, gesturing Kyoya out. The prefect silently obeyed and Reborn leapt onto his shoulder.

"Be ready," Reborn said eyeing between both Tsuna and Hayato. "Whether you decide to train or fight, or not, you will be caught in the crossfire of Mafia politics."

Tsuna shuddered and Kyoya flew off the balcony.

Reborn breathed out deeply, "The Varia will be acting soon," he told Kyoya as he jumped from roof to roof.

"The shark," Kyoya said and Reborn nodded.

"Squalo and the Varia led by Xanxus will be in Namimori shortly in response to my call. I have spoken to your parents and they've agreed. Namimori will be barricaded." He ran his eyes over the passing roads full of peaceful scenery.

"Namimori will no longer be neutral ground. It will be the home to the survivors of the unjust actions of the corrupted leadership contained within the Vongola until the name is cleansed."

* * *

Back in San Vito Lo Capo, Luculia rested peacefully within the comforts of the clinic. Yuni had crawled her way through and on _everything_ to weave herself within Luculia's arms as she slept.

Shuan sat on the floor, leaning against the wall near the foot of her bed. His leg was wrapped up in bandages.

The lights were off and the room was dimly lit due to the various machinery that lined the opposite wall.

Shuan sighed as he stared blankly at the floor in front of him. He felt numb but honestly, he couldn't tell whether it was the drugs or not.

The mechanical doors of Luculia's room slid open with a beep and Shuan didn't bother to look up. The feet stopped right in front of him, waiting silently for him to respond.

Shuan dragged his eyes upwards, following Fed as he crouched in front of him with a tray of food in hand.

"Hungry?" Fed asked him, purposely avoiding the whole 'are you okay?' conversation. He knew it wouldn't benefit either of them at all. After all, the heart-wrenching silence that Shuan responded with only dug into his guilt further and further.

Truthfully, he knew that it was his fault. He knew it well.

Fed sighed as he stood up, sliding the tray onto the desk beside them and sat in front of Shuan with a cup of coffee in hand. "Drink at least, would you?" he said.

When Shuan didn't respond, Fed dropped the subject and left the cup to the side of him.

"She's dead." Shuan choked out in a whisper, "She ran in like a suicide bomber so I could live. I shouldn't be the one to be here."

Reality came down hard on them both. The empty space in their group of friends dug deep within them.

Fed let out a bitter laugh, "I thought you were angry at me." he admitted, "I'm angry at myself."

Shuan huffed a weak laugh in return. "Funny. I was thinking something similar but the last thing I need to do is rip more bonds away from Lu." He glanced up at her as she slept peacefully with Yuni in her arms. "If she died too, I wouldn't know what to do with myself." He shrugged. "Get depressed and suicidal until I get a neck-slapping slap from ass-shark maybe?"

Fed snorted, "Wouldn't take that guy long to travel half the globe to slap any of us, to be honest."

Shuan sighed again. Though, Fed couldn't blame him. He wanted to sigh over and over too, even if it was to get that split-second moment of relief.

"And Hayato?" Shuan asked. "Does he know?"

Fed leaned back onto the ground with a sigh, his hands behind his head as he stared at the blank white ceilings for a bit.

"Called Reborn last night through a more protected line via Verde. He wasn't happy to have to deliver the news but was more than willing. He said he got Squalo going to Namimori and that's where we'll be going after one more attempt to sort this shit out."

"Oh?" Shuan hummed, "And what are you proposing?"

He knew he couldn't sulk his life away. _Make it worth it. Make her proud so she isn't cussing you out form the afterlife._

"Nothing much but a verbal demand to my father about what he's thinking. If I'm lucky this is all just a misunderstanding and this shit will settle down. If I'm not, we either run or I die." He glanced over to Lu, "And at the very least Lia doesn't have an elemental bond with me so it won't hurt her."

"Physically perhaps not, but emotionally it would destroy her."

Fed breathed out deeply, "It's worth the risk of stopping this at least."

_Beep, beep._

Verde's voice rang through their ears. The sudden height in volume, startling Shuan the slightest bit.

"If you're done, both of you should get up here and leave Lu with the baby. She'll be fine."

Fed rolled his eyes as he swung up to his feet with a grunt. He held out a hand to Shuan.

Shuan stared at it for a while then looked up to Fed. Fed raised a brow, "You leaving me hanging now?" Shuan took the offered hand and Fed pulled him to his feet. The wound in his leg ached but it was manageable thanks to Watari.

"Oh my god..." Verde groaned, "Get a room, would you? We have children in the room."

Yuni, who they both now noticed was wide awake, burst into delighted giggles.

* * *

At Shuan's slightly slower pace, both boys dragged themselves up to Verde's office. Both Fon and a familiar face, Viper, stood present.

All three arcobaleno turned to the pair as they entered.

"Finally," Verde said, spinning in his chair to face the screens as the two boys circled behind him. On the screen was a map of Namimori, enlarged to spread over several screens. "Now that everyone is here..." Verde highlighted a large circle over the map.

"This whole area is now of Waters territory because I said so."

Shuan raised a brow, "Waters?"

Fon chuckled lightly, "It's Watari's surname. Reborn insisted upon it since we weren't keen on putting his name forward."

"More like he just didn't want mine up there," Verde grumbled.

Fed shrugged, "That, and _everyone_ refused to put the Varia name up there."

"_Anyway,_" Verde pressed in, "As soon as Lu wakes up we'll be sending everyone over except for Federico who needs to deal with whatever he needs. Viper will be present as an escape route should need be." He sent a pointed look to Fed, "His task is purely to get _you _out alive and no more and no less. If what's-his-face lightning wants an out, he gets out for himself. It's not Vipers-"

"It's Mammon." Viper cut in.

Verde ignored him, "-job to get anyone else but _you_ out. If you make it hard for him then no amounts of cash that we've paid him will make you a priority over his own life. Got it?"

Fed swallowed a lodge in his throat, "Right." he replied.

"Good. That's all, you're all dismissed as soon as possible so I can actually research for once."

* * *

It was around the same time when Luculia came to.

Curling her arms around Yuni, Luculia rolled over to her other side with a light groan. Yuni nuzzled herself closer into Lu's hold.

"'morning," Lu mumbled into Yuni's little tuff of her.

In terms of grogginess, Yuni, who had decided to go back to sleep after the boys had left, was in no better state than Lu.

"Mama..." Yuni slurred into Lu's shirt, the sound slightly muffled by the material.

Lu just hummed back lightly before her eyes suddenly shot open and she sat up rapidly. Yuni squeaked in surprise.

Something was wrong.

Holding Yuni to her middle, Lu's breaths turns rapid as she felt along the light sheets that surrounded her. Something was missing.

She pressed her fist to her chest, trying to physically fill that gaping hole that sat somewhere deep inside of her but she just couldn't reach it.

"Mama?" Yuni called out, tilting her head, her brows furrowed with worry. Lu didn't hear her through the blood pounding in her head.

She shifted her vision to scan the building. Stars, stars, stars. She could see them in all their colours.

She knew that one had to be missing and she needed to know who and what and just... _everything._ What happened? Lu ran a quick mental roll call through those present in the house- she shot a hand to cover her mouth as she gasped uncontrollably.

_No..._

She felt like throwing up. Her fists curled up into the sheets around her as she began to hyperventilate.

_She was missing a **Storm. **A **Bianchi.**_

Lu forced her breathing down into heavy and slow breaths. Freaking out wasn't going to do any good... yet.

A sob wracked up from her as reality came crashing down on her.

"Fuck," she laughed bitterly, tears welling up in her eyes. Could she stop losing people already?

And for a moment, she just let herself cry.

From their stations all around the base, all Lu's guardians felt her distress yet none responded to it. Privacy, after all, was a privilege these days, and if she truly needed them... she would call them.

She wasn't alone.

* * *

Stefano, as a Bovino, was unable to take sides in this occurrence and as such Verde and Watari took the reigns as pilots during the transfer. He was kept under tight constraints with threats fired towards his family if he failed to comply.

He barely managed to convince his boss, his _brother_, to allow him to inform Watari of the strict arrangement. And even then, he was forced to send Lambo to Namimori. He was thankful that Watari's connections with the arcobaleno Reborn were smooth such that Lambo would be safe there, and to fate for at the very least, letting him have that slight peace of mind.

Over the phone line, Reborn sighed irritatedly, "_Are you serious?"_ he grumbled, "Delivering bad news to someone else is one thing, but making me babysit a legitimate brat is crossing the line. Aren't you all meant to be coming over?"

Reborn could _hear_ Verde rolling his eyes, "Yes," Verde drawled, "This is for one of Watari's contacts for the few days in between the cow's arrival and ours. Apparently, the tiny annoying cow is being sent there in hopes of becoming the lightning guardian of the next Vongola boss. The kid's dad is the contact and the uncle is the one sending the kid."

"You're shitting me." Reborn said before sighing tiredly, "Fine. Watari owes me."

"Yeah, yeah." Verde waved it off, recalling the 'do-whatever-you-can-to-get-him-to-do-this' speech he received around 20 minutes ago.

"And don't call me again to tell me about any extra duties that you want me to do, because the answer is no."

Then Reborn hung up on him and Verde planted the side of his face on his desk.

Reborn was having a hard time? No. _Verde_ was having a hard time.

Screw phonecalls.

After Lu had awoken, Watari ensured that she would have enough time to grieve and rest before their departure. They would leave in approximately 3 days whilst Lambo was arriving in Namimori that afternoon.

They had been planning this move for a lengthy amount of time due to safety reasons and valuable connections they had located in Namimori. Watari had been planning this even before the Hibari's had made a solid foundation. The construction had begun before then as well.

It didn't long before Lu slipped out of the infirmary and headed downstairs, where she headed for her room to get dressed. Where Shuan found her was in the training room rapidly rising through the designated training levels, much past what he initially thought she was capable of without the ability to literally tug at someone's soul. A pleasant surprise. He hadn't expected her to be so proficient with senbon.

As Lu trained, Yuni toddled around, playing with Cosmo in her own little playground that Watari had installed long ago for Lu herself when she was little.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Shuan called out as she wiped out the last mist-flame produced dummy. Walking over to the terminal, Lu shut the simulation off, puffing slightly as she wiped the sweat off her brow.

"I'm fine," she breathed out, "My episodes are violent but brief. I feel fine."

"If you say so."

Lu wandered over to the weapons and equipment shelving and expertly shelved all her senbon, needles and threads.

"Since when did you get so good at this?" Shuan asked, leaning against the wall beside the shelves.

Lu huffed a laugh through her panting, pulling out her senbon case again and pressing it into his hands.

Shuan held it silently for a few seconds before raising a brow at her, "What's this for?"

"You're a good shot," Lu said with a smile, stepping back. She gestured to the targets on the wall.

Shuan rolled his eyes good-naturedly, sliding a senbon from the case. With smooth movements, he threw it at the target, mimicking Lu's stance from the simulation levels she completed earlier.

Seeing the result, Lu rolled her eyes with a huff as she walked off to go pick Yuni up from her playground.

"Is there _anything_ you're bad at?" she teased over her shoulder.

Shuan grimaced, "Flame-control."

_If his control and flame efficiency was better, he could've-_

Lu hummed, "I suppose so." She propped Yuni on her hip as Cosmo clambered up her body and onto her shoulder. "Come on," she said lightly, walking to the door, "I'm going to shower, you should get something to eat."

Shuan's eyes lingered on the target, the senbon laying innocently on the bullseye. He took one look at the shelf before fetching the senbon case in his pocket.

He would make her more later.

_Keep a weapon on you at all times. _He told himself. _You're good at it, unlike your flames. Maybe with weapons... you can actually keep your family alive._

* * *

The next three days went by quickly with Watari and Verde working on setting everything up and setting Watari's current base into lockdown.

Lu and Shuan spent their time distracting themselves through training as Fed took up the Yuni-babysitting task for them.

Easy, right?

Wrong.

"Papa, Mama?" Yuni whined as Fed carried her down the hall from the kitchen. He was currently on the way to the training room playground to find something to entertain the young girl.

Fed laughed awkwardly, "Uh... your Mama is in the training room where we're going but... I'm not your Papa." He wasn't sure _who_ was Yuni's father but he sure didn't want to take that place if it truly belonged to someone.

Yuni tilted her head, "Papa's Papa."

"Wait no-" Fed flustered as Yuni stared at him wide-eyed and curious. He sighed, "You might still have a Papa that's _your_ Papa and not me, if you get what I mean."

Yuni still didn't quite get that with all his confusing wording and this became blindingly apparent when they finally got to the training room. Both Lu and Shuan were leaning against the

"Mama!" Yuni exclaimed happily reaching out towards Lu.

Fon went ahead to Namimori to ensure their new residence was acceptable and as it should be and Viper... well Mammon was information hunting for Federico.

The best-case scenario would be that he would find the root of the issue, worst-case he would get caught but Mammon refused to ever get caught.

Mammon hummed curiously as he floated through the corridors, towards the training room where he knew the kids would be.

"Federico," he called as he entered, though. All heads, sans Shuan who was currently sparring Lu, turned to Mammon as he entered, and Shuan took the chance to swipe at Lu's feet, sending her to the ground with a wince.

"Eyes up, Lu." Shuan scolded, "Never be distracted by anything"

Lu nodded through a pained grimace, pushing herself to her feet.

"What is it, Mammon?" Fed asked, leaving Yuni in the playground with Cosmo.

Mammon turned to exit, "A word." Fed followed without question leaving the rest to stare at their fading figures in question.

That long, staring silence lasted for a long moment before Shuan cut through it with a hand on Lu's shoulder, turning her body back into the centre of the sparring mat.

"Come on, let's go another round," he said, twirling a wooden staff between his fingers before landing it in a firm grip and pulling back into a stance. She nodded absentmindedly, her eyes still lingering on the door. Shuan rolled his eyes and swung a strike at her that she barely parried.

"One more round," he said, locking eyes with her. "I leave in a couple of hours, you can stare at boy-toy as much as you want later."

Shuan took an earlier flight very soon after.

* * *

_"Coyote?" Fed asked, furrowing his brows, "He was always extremely uptight and someone of a suck-up, to be completely honest. But I don't think-"_

_"I'm not asking for your opinion." Mammon cut him off, "I'm telling you my speculations so you can be prepared and **not** get into situations that make my job significantly more difficult."_

_"So you want me to be wary of him?"_

_"Flame signatures don't change, Federico. Don't show it on your face. You're an actor, a negotiator. Don't screw this up because the only one you'll be killing off is yourself and potentially part of my dignity and reputation."_

* * *

_**"VOOOIII!"**_ Squalo's voice boomed through the airport as the Varia strolled out of the glass doors.

Xanxus smacked him over the head making Squalo hiss in pain, "Shut it, trash." he snapped with a glare.

Squalo just grumbled under his breath as they walked out into the street. "Shitty boss." He darted his eyes around the overly peaceful place, "What the fuck is this shit?"

"Namimori, Japan." Reborn's voice replied out of nowhere. All the Varia's eyes darted to the wall where Reborn sat on top, but not for long as Reborn pushed to his feet. "You enter this place as an ally and you stay one or die." He started to walk down the street with the Varia following silently along.

"Where's Iemitsu-trash's trash?" Xanxus asked, "and what are you doing with the old trash?"

"We'll see." was Reborn's vague reply.

Xanxus grumbled but let it go. Even he knew when to stand down in front of a stronger fighter.

Fon appeared and landed on the wall in behind Reborn, "They are arriving tonight." he informed his fellow arcobaleno.

Reborn nodded firmly. "Thanks." Fon nodded and left promptly.

"Where are we staying?" Squalo asked.

"The Namimori Waters base." Reborn stopped to send pointed looks to each and every one of them, "You have rules that you _must_ follow."

Xanxus growled, "I don't take orders from anyone-" Reborn cocked his gun.

"Break the rules and die."

Reborn led them through Namimori and towards the police station, one of the main entrances to the base protected by Hibari Kyoya's father. At the sight of the arcobaleno, the front desk officer curtly nodded a greeting and let him pass with no question. Reborn led the Varia to the 3rd-from-the-back room, pressed against the wall of the seeming storage closet and sent them all through the elevator that emerged.

Feeling the pressure in their ears, they knew for a fact that they were going several stories down underground.

The doors reopened revealing the vast and highly technological base. Needless-to-say, it was fucking enormous.

"This is way bigger than their other one," Squalo gaped as they strolled through.

Reborn hummed in agreement, "The Italian one has 3 levels. This one has 12." Squalo blanched as Reborn brought them to a large meeting room where Tsuna and his current guardians, with the addition of the young new-comer Lambo, sat. It was a circular table with a hollow centre.

Tsuna and Hayato were seated whilst Kyoya leaned on the wall behind them. Lambo felt the tense atmosphere and quieted down. Xanxus and the Varia, sans Squalo, soon took their places at the table as Reborn and Fon stood around the centre edge.

Hayato stood up and rounded the room and Squalo did the same, meeting half-way.

"Brat," Squalo greeted.

"Squalo," Hayato replied with a nod, "You're in, right? For the whole ordeal."

"That all depends on what that 'ordeal' is." Squalo's eyes landed pointedly on Reborn, who stared back with no signs of faltering. "I'm still in the dark for a significant amount of information."

"Everyone will be briefed by Watari and Verde when they arrive in Namimori." Reborn said. "For now, we will be briefing you on house rules. Where you'll all be staying and so on. This applies to all parties including the pseudo-tenth generation, the Varia, the Waters and the Arcobaleno aligned. Skull is not mafia thus we've elected to exclude him from this charade. We are still unsure of where Lal and Collonello stand upon this arrangement so, myself, Fon, Verde, Viper and Luculia will deal with that accordingly."

Xanxus glared, "Who-"

Reborn cut in once more, "Introductions will be dealt with when the person of interest is present. As for the ground rules of the building," Reborn waved his hand to the centre of the circular table and lights shone simultaneously from the inner edges of the table. These crossed over and formed a holographic building layout for visual effect.

Reborn continued, "All destruction tendencies and training _will_ be done on the lowest floor, B12. We are currently on B1 where meetings and briefings occur. We have emergency weapons on standby should need be. B2 are the kitchens and laundry and B3 to 5 are residence halls. There are clinics on B1 and B12. All other floors are strictly off-limits."

He turned to Tsuna, "Dame-Tsuna what did I just tell you?" Tsuna was flustered.

"I- uh, training is at the bottom and... and..."

"Meetings on 1st, chores on 2nd, residence from 3 to 5 and don't go on any other levels." Gokudera finished.

Reborn didn't look impressed but let it slide for now. "Good. Learn it, remember it, don't forget it."

"What about Kaa-san?" Tsuna asked.

"This place isn't for _you_ nor _Hibari_ to be living in regularly." His eyes grew wide, "It'd be too suspicious if we wiped all of you off the radar including myself. We suspect that the Vongola already knows we are basing ourselves here but refrain from attacking such a vulnerable place due to your residency here and Iemitsu's bratty-ass nature."

A beep soon followed by a purple-violet dot appearing on the top floor of the building layout hologram.

"Shuan must be done with his rounds," Fon noted.

Squalo rolled his eyes, typical.

"Shuan was called earlier to conceal all your trails, seeing as the Varia mist is in Italy and Tsunayoshi currently lacks one. You shouldn't come down here without a mist or equivalent training."

_Beep, zzzzzzz. _The mechanical door of the meeting room slid open revealing a blonde young man, Shuan, dressed in a vest-style suit with his sleeves rolled up. Squalo snorted seeing the dark, grey-scale colours that he chose to dorn.

"Edgy," he commented as Shuan strode past him.

"Shark-ass, you're wearing leather tights for the aesthetic." Shuan shot back.

Squalo scoffed, "Whatever."

"Teenage chick, much?"

"Fuck off, Cloud-ass."

* * *

Around 5 or so hours after Shuan left, the rest, sans Viper and Fed, left as well after bidding the two farewell.

Their flight over was easy and smooth as expected with the combined technological minds of Watari and Verde combined with the mist contributions from Luculia and Shuan both prior to the trip.

"Hey~" Lu cooed to Yuni as they boarded the plane, "Are you excited?"

Yuni giggled, "Mn!" she cheered, "Mama!"

Lu smiled and laughed, "We're going to meet a _lot _of new people and old friends too."

Watari hummed in agreement as he followed her in, splitting paths to place and secure pieces of luggage.

Lu continued, "Squalo and the Varia... the Arcobaleno... and some new people that are Hayato's friends-"

"Like your half-brother," Watari added in.

"Like my half-" Lu went silent, blinking a few times before turning to Watari with her eyes wide, "my what now?"

He gave her a pressing look simultaneously as Verde boarded, giving them weird looks before brushing it off as normal. They were weird like that.

"I likely should have informed you earlier that we know who your father is and that he had a child with another woman," Watari said.

Lu huffed in disbelief, flopping back in her seat. "Well..." she breathed out, "Oh wow..."

"Don't get your hopes up though." Verde said, "Iemitsu is a fu- idiot and heavily aligned to the Vongola. He's mafia and won't care about you more than the use of your blood or killing you."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"The slightest chance that he recognises you or in the case that you need to use your blood rights to survive. The Vongola has many items under blood locks and you have full access to them if you need." Watari knew for a fact that there was a high chance that this conflict would need to end with the heir locked in through blood. Through blood_right_ or through death, he wasn't sure. "Iemitsu has nothing on you but your blood. He doesn't know you, he's never met you, he doesn't care about you. He is _Vongola_ and if you have to, you kill him. Do you understand?"

Lu grimaced but nodded.

"If he tries to kill you and you _don't _kill him, not only will _you_ die but he'll go for the rest of this family as well," Watari said this as his eyes fell pointedly on Yuni.

_So now she finds out she has living blood-ties and she might have to kill them. Great. Just- just great._

That little piece of information made the landing in Namimori slightly less exciting and significantly more nerve-wracking.

Lu bounced Yuni on her hip as she descended the steps from the aircraft and down onto solid ground. Their landing space was privately owned and completely hired out with a few strings pulled by the Hibari rule.

At the bottom of the stairs stood way too many people for both Lu and Yuni's comfort. There was a crowd of a mix of strangers and familiar faces that Yuni stared wide-eyed and terrified at before promptly tearing up.

"Oh, nonono," Lu said in a slight panic, tucking Yuni closer to her body. "It's okay, it's okay."

Yuni only cried more as her crying attracted attention and subsequently more eyes on her. Lu grimaced and sent Shuan a pained and pleading grimace. 'Too many people' Lu mouthed.

Shuan sighed and cast a light illusion over Yuni so she couldn't see the people.

Lu sighed in relief when Yuni finally calmed down.

"How was the flight?" Shuan asked walking in front of the crowd.

Lu eyed his unusual attire up and down, "Fine..." she breathed out, "Yeah."

When her eyes rose back to his, Shuan's eyes were filled with amusement and teasing joy. "See something you like?"

She rolled her eyes, "You look great."

Lu grazed her eyes over the crowd and gifted them with polite smiles, curt nods and slight bows before pressing Yuni into Shuan's arms all of a sudden. Lu immediately made a beeline to the middle school kids and gave Hayato a big hug. The hug startled him at first but it was okay. Hayato pressed his face into the crook of her neck to hide the welling tears he was sure were there.

She chuckled, petting his hair as her eyes landed on Kyoya.

"Woah! Kyo-chan, you're so big now!" she exclaimed waving him closer. Kyoya reluctantly dragged his feet over to the affectionate sky. Lu pulled back from the hug with Hayato, pressing his hair back from his face and holding his cheeks, "How have you two been?"

Hayato swallowed a lodge in his throat, "Fine," he choked out before clearing his throat, "Good."

Lu smiled kindly and ruffled his hair, "I'm glad."

She turned to Kyoya, "And you?" Kyoya averted his eyes with a grunt. Typical but slightly less cute reaction.

Lu huffed a laugh, "Good to know that Kyo-chan is still Kyo-chan."

"Oh, Lu-nee," Hayato said, attracting Lu's eyes.

She gave him a curious look, "Hm?"

He gestured to the fluffy brown-haired boy beside him, "This is Sawada Tsunayoshi, he was being trained for the 10th generation boss position."

"He still _is_ being trained," Reborn cut in, nodding to Luculia in greeting. "We should go inside. It's not safe to talk out here."

Lu nodded in agreement and immediately left their side to fetch for Yuni.

* * *

_"She's... Luculia-san, right?" Tsuna asked as the middler-schoolers re-entered the base._

_Hayato nodded, "She was best friends with my sister and helped Kyoya and I get out of Italy, and find a home."_

_"She's also the Sky Arcobaleno," Reborn added in, "So if you hurt her, or intend to do so, you'll die one way or another."_

_A violent shudder ran through Tsuna, "But she's nice right?"_

_Shuan appeared in front of them, dumping several luggage pieces into the elevator before them. Mist tricks, Reborn mused, with more. The elevator was large so the three students and Reborn could easily fit as well._

_"She's almost too nice," Shuan told them, leaning on the wall._

_"But at the same time..."_

_Ding! The elevator doors opened once again for Shuan's stop and he shifted all the bags out into the hallway before him. He sighed tiredly after he finished and stepped out._

_The doors were about to shut when Shuan shoved his hand between them to re-open them. This scared Tsuna to death and he released an ear-piercing squeak._

_Both Kyoya and Reborn levelled unimpressed glares at Tsuna. _

_"Anyway," Shuan started up again, leaning on the open doors, "yeah," he smiled tightly, his eyes locked purposefully on Tsuna, "She could crush your very soul between the tip of her fingers and you wouldn't exist long enough to feel it. Have a good night."_

_The doors closed in front of them leaving them to contemplate his ominous words._

_The warning, however, was as clear as day and aimed directly at Tsuna and Tsuna only._

* * *

( ´ ∀ `)ノ～

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you to those that spent the time to leave reviews, follow or favourite! I'm honestly surprised given how terrible I've become at updating.

**Q&A**

_Why is Reborn with Tsuna when Federico is still alive?_

Essentially, whilst Nono may have questionable actions, he is still a mafia boss. Federico is his last living son and Nono knows that Federico doesn't show the amount of keen passion or want for the mafia boss title. Whilst there is another candidate alive to take that place (Tsuna), Nono ultimately decided that he would rather have his son alive them dead because of his own choices.

Forfeiting the position is perfectly fine so long as there is another candidate to take the place, and Tsuna, given how Nana is like and his connection to Iemitsu, would be the perfect candidate, not only for Nono to retain several instances of control in the case something goes off.


End file.
